Revelation 1:4–6
This is a talk I delivered in 2026 at an evangelistic event run by my church.
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Revelation 1:4–6
Grace to you and peace, […] 5 from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Introduction
Who is Jesus? The historical evidence tells us that He was a man who lived roughly 2000 years ago, and 2000 miles away. Great—so what? Well, He was obviously a very influential man—many think of Him as a good moral teacher or philosopher, perhaps an example that we can emulate in our lives, maybe mixed in with a bit of Confucius and Socrates for good measure.
If we take His and His followers' words seriously we find that there's a lot more to Him than just some optional philosophy. Let's look a bit more closely at those words we just read from the Book of Revelation.
First of all, for context, Revelation is a letter, and you'll see at the very start of the passage on your sheet that it was written by one of Jesus' disciples, John, to Christians in Asia, which is now called Turkey. John spent several years as a close follower of Jesus, and saw Him crucified, and then saw Him after He was raised from the dead. But we're getting ahead of ourselves!
John doesn't start His letter with “To whom it may concern” or even “To my dear friends”, but with a greeting I doubt you've received before: “Grace and peace from Jesus Christ.” That's quite the opening! We'll come back to the grace and peace later on. Before that, let's see what John has to say about Jesus. First, from the list of titles John gives, it's pretty clear that he wants us to see that:
Jesus is glorious
Jesus is glorious. Those titles again: “Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth”
Firstly, Jesus is called the faithful witness. A faithful witness sees, and then testifies accurately, so what was it that Jesus testified about, and how? Jesus testified to God's character of glory, goodness, and love, and He testified in all His words and actions. Everything Jesus did showed God's glory to the world. Elsewhere in the Bible, John says that he has “seen Jesus' glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”: that is, Jesus shows us all who God is, and He does this perfectly, because He is the Son of the Father, He Himself is God become man. We might say that He looks just like His Father! And so all the glory of God shines through Jesus, and He bears faithful witness to God's character through His life.
Interestingly, the Greek word for “witness” is μαˊρτυς: that is, martyr. And Jesus was indeed martyred, killed because of His perfect faithfulness to God. This itself demonstrates how perfect His life was, faithful unto death. And it reveals something about mankind too: His perfect life reveals our sinfulness, how far we have fallen from God. His light reveals our dirtiness, like shining a torch under your fridge. And so, at the hands of humans with injured self-righteousness, the innocent, faithful witness was crucified, nailed to a cross. We'll come back to this soon. But for now, suffice it to say that mankind killed the faithful witness, because of His faithfulness.
But a couple of days later, when His disciples—including John—visited the tomb where He had been buried, the Roman guard who had been stationed to guard the grave had abandoned their post, the enormous boulder covering the entrance had been rolled back, and the body was gone.
After the horror of finding the tomb supposedly ransacked, the disciples' sorrow turns to joy as Jesus meets them again—though, different this time. Radiant. Transfigured. More alive than anyone they've ever seen. It's the glorious firstborn from the dead! The first man to have overcome that looming threat that hangs over us all.
We, understandably, don't like to think about death, as it puts an end to everything good. Whatever meaning or purpose we try to find, it is cut short by the unforgiving grave. Family and friends? 3 of my 4 grandparents have died, the rest of my family will and I will too. Memories of great experiences? Try reliving them when you're dead. Money, status, power? Not much use in the grave. Yet, here, standing before those awe-struck disciples, is the answer, the solution to mankind's biggest problem. The glorious, radiant man standing before the disciples was dead, but is now alive. Suddenly, there is hope: suddenly, life can indeed have a purpose that is not cut short. Of course, that is only true if it can apply to us too, but again, we'll come back to that in a moment. For now, just notice that He is the firstborn, the eldest child—a hint that there are more children to come.
But before we do come to that, let's consider that third glorious title given by John: the ruler of kings on earth. I hardly need explain how this is glorious. The one with all authority, all power and dominion. If there is anyone who rules by divine right, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if He rules over kings, how much more does He require our allegiance and loyalty.
The problem is that we are not loyal subjects; in fact, by nature we are rebels against Him. I briefly mentioned our sin earlier, describing it as our filthiness, our turning away from God and our rejection of His faithful witness. We might add that it is our rebellion against the glorious king of kings. As well as obvious sins, like murder and adultery, there are also more subtle, secret sins: hatred and anger, which are the seeds that the thorny bush of murder grows from; or lustful thoughts: the root of the poisonous berries of adultery; and so on. We gossip, lie and live selfishly, and worst of all, through it all we do not care about the God who made us and who loves us.
Now, the king of kings is a just and holy king. How could a good king just let human evil run rampant forever in His kingdom? If there is to be any justice in this world, then all sin needs to be punished. And given that we rebel against the God of life, the only fitting consequence is death.
But lest we give any ground to the notion that Jesus is some tyrannical despot, let's see what kind of king He is.
Jesus is for us
So Jesus is glorious; the Son of the Father who was killed for faithfully bearing witness to God in all His words and deeds, then raised from the dead, conquering that ancient enemy, now ruling as universal king. Perhaps this sounds very grand but all a bit abstract and distant. Jesus was raised from the dead, not me. And why would such a supreme king want anything to do with me? Jesus is glorious, but is He for us? Take a look with me at the next sentence.
“To Him who loves us, and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father”
First of all, He loves us. This is the foundational point. If Jesus is king of kings, firstborn of the dead and faithful witness, but doesn't care one bit about us, then we should hardly care about Him. In fact, if He were sovereign over all and didn't love us, we'd be in a terrible situation; think Hitler or Pol Pot. Glory and dominion without love is not good news for us. But the glory of God is not like that. Here is a very clear yet astounding point: the glorious, universal king loves us. This is very good news for us! This is a king we should want to follow and obey—which makes it all the worse that we do the exact opposite in our lives of sin.
But look at the next thing John says: Jesus frees us from those sins of ours by His own blood. While the king of kings must punish sin with death, in His love He also provides the solution for us: He Himself dies for us, in our place, so that anyone who will turn back to Him from their rebellion will be freed from their sins. Amongst the uncountable blessings God pours on us, this is supreme expression of His love for a rebellious and unworthy humanity. No room is left for pride or self-righteousness, only gratitude. All of our filth, washed away. Rebellion pardoned. Forgiveness in place of condemnation.
Jesus' death illuminates everything I said in the first section of this talk.
Jesus' death is where we see most clearly that He was a faithful witness to the glory of God. He was faithful unto death, and indeed the glory of God shines out most radiantly as Jesus dies for us unworthy sinners. The faithful witness testifies: “God hates sin, and He will sacrifice Himself to rescue sinners from its bonds”.
We also saw that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. In dying for our sins, He has made a way for there to be many more children to follow! All who turn to God have their sin forgiven, and sin causes death, and so death is dealt with. Life can have purpose that will not be cut short. The doom hanging over us all can be replaced with confident hope.
At Jesus' death, we also see what kind of king He is. At the cross, they dressed Him in a purple robe—a royal colour. He was crowned with thorns, and the sign on His cross called Him king. It was all mockery, of course, but they didn't know how right they were. The king of kings has absolute sovereignty over all of us, but He is no tyrant. Rather, He is the humble, suffering king who died to set His people free, people who once lived as traitors and rebels against the kingdom.
Look with me now at the next few words, where John very concisely summarises the life that Jesus has won for those who follow Him. He has “made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father”. I will keep this very short, but those words are very heavily loaded with meaning.
Firstly, Christians share in His kingdom. The King is powerful, glorious and loving, and so His kingdom is the place to be! Blessings abound: spiritual, heavenly blessings: communion with God, joy, peace, hope, and the power of God to amend our lives, to leave our folly and sin and to walk in His ways, imitating His love. And the king calls to all people everywhere: Leave your rebellion and come to my glorious kingdom! I have made open the way for you!
Another way to describe Christians is as priests. In short, that means that we offer sacrifices to God: not killing animals or anything, but offering all that we do to Him. This includes the sacrifices of prayer, song, and worship as we gather in church, and extends to all of life, as we pray, work, eat, celebrate, mourn, and so on, bearing faithful witness with word and deed. All is done in thanksgiving for God's love for us, and all to God's glory. We do this very imperfectly now, but the promise of heaven is that we will worship God perfectly in all that we do, eternally enjoying His infinite radiant glory of goodness and love, as mankind was always meant to. And so the king calls to everyone: Come in from the cold, and worship! Come and bask in the presence of God! I have made open the way for you!
Conclusion
Let me draw this to a close with the final words of the passage, and the first ones. Glory and dominion to Jesus, and grace and peace from Him to us.
We have seen that Jesus is glorious: the faithful unswerving witness, the firstborn from the dead, the king of kings. Glory and dominion are His. Therefore, all people must join John in giving Him glory and living joyfully under His good rulership.
But the glory of God is also His love towards sinful people. We see it supremely in Jesus' self-sacrifice for sinful people, freeing us from sin, judgement and death. He calls us all to enjoy His kingdom and to serve God with all we do, with renewed hope and purpose.
His glory is in grace: that is, undeserved kindness and tenderness. And it is in peace: peace with the God we had made our enemy. And it all comes to us from Jesus Christ, the God of glory and dominion, grace and peace.