9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account 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 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

Christians should not be surprised by trials, “as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Paul Beasley-Murray writes: “Contrary to some modern ‘prosperity’ teaching, membership of Christ’s kingdom does not shield us from suffering—rather, for John and his readers, membership of the kingdom was the cause of their suffering.” This is John’s testimony concerning himself. He was “on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 1:9). John shows that the faithful Christian will not shrink from proclaiming the truth of God’s Word and the gospel message of Jesus, but will accept persecution for it. John did not conform his life or his witness to fit in with the times, and for precisely this faithful conduct he was a partner “in the tribulation.”

The final item in which John is our “brother and partner” is “patient endurance” (Rev. 1:9). If tribulation is our road and the kingdom our destination, then patient endurance is our mode of travel, our manner of living. The Greek word hupomone suggests both passivity in the form of patience and activity in the form of endurance. It involves continual perseverance in faith and loyalty to Jesus regardless of the difficulties or cost. Paul wrote that Christ will “present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Col. 1:22–23).

In the Greek text, there is only one definite article for “tribulation,” “kingdom,” and “patient endurance.” This shows that they are boxed together in a set, so that we cannot have one without the others. Like John, every other Christian faces tribulation, receives a kingdom, and advances from the one to the other by patient endurance. Jesus promised that “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13). Paul adds that “if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Tim. 2:12).

It was said that in Napoleon’s army, every French soldier carried a field marshal’s baton in his knapsack. The point was that any soldier could rise from the bottom all the way to the top. We might say the same of Christians, except that every Christian has a crown in his or her possession and every one of them will certainly wear it, but only through patient endurance under the tribulation of this world. John on Patmos showed us how. Despite his imprisonment, poverty, and affliction, he continued to worship and serve Jesus, and to bear witness to his salvation. We are to do the same, as those who with John are “brother[s] and partner[s] in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” (Rev. 1:9).

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Jesus went on to explain his authority to banish our terror: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one” (Rev. 1:17–18). This statement connects back to the words of God the Father in verse 8: “ ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’ ” By taking up similar words, Jesus declares his oneness with the Father in deity. As “the first and the last,” Jesus is sovereign over all that comes between, that is, over all time, history, and creation. As “the living one,” Jesus possesses the power and life needed to cast away all fear.