THE FIRST VISION.
‘I John, your brother, and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.'
Now begins the first vision. It is written by John to the seven churches of Asia Minor. He is on the isle of Patmos, a small island in the Aegean sea. He describes himself as their brother. This is significant because it is an indication of how closely he is aligning himself with them in what is to come.
He is a ‘partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom (kingly rule) and patient endurance which are in Jesus'. Thus he aligns himself with them in what lies ahead. Tribulation and patient endurance are ever the lot of the Christian (Acts 14:22; Romans 5:3), and this is a main theme of the book. The intermission of the idea of the ‘kingdom' (kingly rule) stresses that present experience of the kingdom is tied up with tribulation and patient endurance. What they endure for Christ's sake is confirmation that they are in the kingdom. (We could translate ‘the tribulation of the kingdom', for that is what is in mind).
He was there ‘for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus'. This refers back to Revelation 1:2 where he was there to ‘bear witness of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, even of all things that he SAW'. So the word of God and the testimony of Jesus of which he speaks is descriptive of the things that he ‘saw', the things that are about to be described. It refers to the coming revelation which he is there to see and receive. But that it sums up Christian testimony is seen by the fact that the people of God who have already died in persecution also did so ‘for the word of God and for the testimony that they held' (Revelation 6:9).
But bearing witness to the word of God through his visions includes bearing witness to Him Who is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13 compare John 1:1-14; 1 John 1:1). Indeed, in view of the fact that both John's Gospel and John's general epistle begin with He Who is ‘the Word', it may well be we should see ‘the word of God' in Revelation 1:2 and here as referring to Him Who is ‘the Word of God'. Either way it includes Him for He is the central element in the word of God.
Whether John was there by choice or as a prisoner of the Roman Empire we do not know, although later external testimony suggests the latter. His reference to being a ‘partaker with you in the tribulation' may hint at this also. But whatever brought him there he is stressing that he was essentially there in God's purpose, that he might receive God's revelation.