Revelation Study-Prologue

Ha. That's right. I had high hopes of getting through chapter one, doing a word search and summarizing all of the cross references.....fat chance. Hehe, so I got through the first three verses--and even that I feel like I am skimming it! If you're reading this, I HIGHLY recommend that you do your own studies on these words, or on other important words in the text and seek out cross-references because, not only is there SO much to the text but I am so so very green at studying God's word like this!

Prologue:

Word searches-- revelation, servants (bondservant), blessed and near.
*ESV study Bible highlighted the words "show, made it known" as other words that could be searched.

• Revelation= 'genre' revelation or an 'apocalypse,' a disclosure of unseen realities: Jesus is both the One Revealed (noted thru-out text as: Son of Man, Lion of Judah, Lamb and Word of God )and the Revealer (to John and believers.)--ESV Commentary

• Servants--Ok. So this was extremely interesting to me, so you may or may not be aware of the term "bondservant" I was just introduced to it this past year in a sermon series done by our pastor. Basically a bondservant is associated with a disciple of Christ--At first, I thought I would look up the definition of 'bondservant' in the dictionary but then it dawned on me that perhaps the translation of the word may lose meaning in American text. I went to http://www.studylight.org/ and looked it up and this was information that I found:

• -servant: "ebed" (Hebrew) pronounced "eh'-bed"

definition- slave, servant, man-servant; subjects; servants, worshippers (of God)

servant (in special sense as prophets, levites etc); servant (Israel) or

servant (as form of address b/t equals)

• Cross references for servant
• Revelation 22:6 "These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the 'Spirits of the prophets' has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place."
• Revelation 22:16 "He made it known by sending his angel to his servant* (bondservant)

• Blessed

(1) reads aloud the words of prophecy (2) who hear and keep what is written

• Cross-references:
• Revelation 22:7- "Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book"
• Luke 11:28- "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Prep for the verse is a woman says to Jesus in verse 27 "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!"---interesting huh?)
• John 8:51- "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
• 1 John 2:2-3-"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments."

• "..for the time is near"
• Cross-references:
• Revelation 22:10; "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near."
• 1 John 2:18- "Children, it is the hour, and as you have heard that the anti-christ is coming, so now many anti-christs have come."

-"last hour"- 2 Timothy 3:1 and James 5:3; 2 Peter 3:3--"last days"

-"final trial" "have already arrived" (Acts 2:17)--were inaugurated @ Pentecost

referring to the"coming of the Messiah"