2 Who bare[1] record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
The second verse emphasizes that John’s role in this Revelation was to ‘bare record’ of three things:
· The word of God
· The testimony of Jesus Christ
· All things that he saw
Interestingly, this phrase ‘bare record’ is only used by John in the New Testament writings. He uses it five times.
· John 1:32- John bares record that he did, in fact, see the Holy spirit ascending like a dove at Jesus’ baptism.
· John 1:34- John bares record of his own early realization that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.
· John 12:17- John, along with many others, bare record that Jesus did, in fact, raise Lazarus from the dead.
· John 19:35- John bare record that the centurion did NOT break the legs of Jesus on the cross, thus fulfilling scripture.
· Our passage here in The Revelation: John bares record that what he is writing is in fact the word of God, a further revelation of the testimony of Jesus Christ as being the Son of God, and that what he writes in this book is, in fact, what he himself saw.
All of this identifies John’s concern that what he has had revealed unto him, and what he records, are from God, and that his testimony is not to be taken lightly. One final detail about the Greek in this third verse is significant as well. The word translated ‘bare record’ is the same word used by the Lord Himself when He says in Acts 8:1-
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The personal responsibility of every true believer is to ‘bear record’ that Jesus, the Son of God, revealed in the entire Bible, is in fact the Son of God. This testimony of every true believer must bear record that Jesus is as He is revealed in the book of The Revelation. Apart from entering fully into this final Revelation of Jesus Christ in the scriptures, the testimony of every believer is incomplete.
The testimony among believers today, and for numerous generations, has been of Jesus hanging on the cross, buried, then resurrected for our sins. But that leaves off the extremely important Revelation of Him as given through this book of The Revelation. This promotes an inadequate and shallow sense of Who Jesus Christ really is in the churches and to the world and it brings us back to the suggested question we have said might help to guide a truly God-honoring consideration of this book of The Revelation:
How does this portion of the Truth given by God in the book of The Revelation help me to better see and understand the Revelation of Jesus Christ?
[1] This is a good place to identify that in present-day English the word ‘bare’ as used in the KJV would be spelled as ‘bear,’ not ‘bare.’
I will never forget how God used Dr. Parker to reveal The Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelations. It truly changed my wife and I. It made us realize that Jesus is the CENTRAL message of all the scriptures. 💝