John: 'It is finished'

Revelation 1:3: [3] Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

You see how in verse 4 he just says “John”? His name just stands there all by itself, just like Paul would say, “Paul.” John’s name speaks for itself, because he’s a well-known person, explains Richard Jordan.

He says in verse 9: [9] I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

John was sent by God to the isle of Patmos. People say he was a prisoner down there, and that he was in jail for the Word of God, but that’s not it. He’s in Patmos FOR the Word of God. God had a revelation to give him and God sent him down to the island to GET the revelation about the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

John, when he wrote the Book of Revelation, KNEW he was writing Scripture. He knew he was there to get a revelation and to write the very Word of Almighty God. He knew what he was doing.

Mark 3: [13] And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.
[14] And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
[15] And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:
[16] And Simon he surnamed Peter;
[17] And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

Notice that famous trio--Peter, James and John. The only three of the 12 apostles that He surnamed were these three. He said about Peter, “Thou art Simon, but I’m going to change your name and they’re going to call you Cephas, Peter, the Rock.” The reason He did that is because God gave him a revelation: “Blessed art thou Simon Barjona; upon this rock I will build my church.”

Peter had his name changed because he was destined to be the head of the apostles; to be a rock. He got the name to represent the job he was going to carry on in their midst.

James and John also got surnamed; they were named “The sons of thunder.” Now, I’ve heard people talk about that passage for years. They say, “They’re the personification of thunder,” or it was because John was a hothead.

I read John’s books—I John, II John, III John and Revelation—and I don’t get the idea he was any hotheaded guy. John, he calls himself “the apostle whom Jesus loved.” There’s a tenderness in that that doesn’t go along with being a hothead.

The reason they’re called “The sons of thunder” is the title. Go to Job 37 and Joel 3 and all the passages in the Old Testament that talk about thunder. When God spoke in time past, you know what people say they heard? Thunder.

The voice of God in the Old Testament, over and over, and in the New Testament in John 12 and Acts 9, is equated with thunder.

You know what he was saying about John and James? These guys are going to be the voice of thunder; that is, they’re going to be the personification of the voice of God. They were going to speak for God.

That why in Acts 12 Herod takes James and has his head cut off; he wants to silence the voice of God speaking against him. Later, in Acts 12, they have a Herod Day and all Israel listens to Herod and they say, “Ahh, it’s as the voice of God.” They’ve taken the apostate and placed him in the place of God’s man. God destroyed him, a type of the Antichrist.

John, when he writes, he’s in Patmos for the Word of God because John is the one who speaks as the voice of God. When you read Revelation, you’re reading the voice of God talking, and you’re also reading the testimony of the Jesus Christ.

You’re reading a very special part of the Word of God. Revelation 19:10: [10] And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

John knows he writes as a prophet. At the end of the Bible in Revelation 22 he says, [18] For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
[19] And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
[20] He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

You know what John’s saying? “Brother, I got this vision and I’ve written this thing and this COMPLETES the prophetic revelation.”

The Old Testament is called the law of the prophets. In Deuteronomy 4:1-2 Moses says, [1] Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.
[2] Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Right before Moses dies, he says, “Don’t take away from anything I wrote. Don’t add to anything I wrote. The Law is complete and I’ve given it to you in written form.”

The problem in Israel is they added to the law. Jesus says, “You teach for commandments the doctrines of men.”

They added to the Law to the point they couldn’t tell the difference between the written Word of God from Moses and their traditions of men. That was the problem in Israel; they were adding to what Moses wrote. The Law was complete; John says the prophecy is complete.

Like Paul says in Colossians 1:25: [25] Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

What John writes when he writes Revelation is about the completion of that prophetic program. That’s how you read the Book of Revelation. It’s a book that brings to culmination the prophetic program of God and His Word.