Revelation 1:4-6 (He Rules The World!)
Watch this blog on this week’s episode of The PRODCAST.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." - Revelation 1:4-6
PART 1: A ROYAL CONTEXT
David Chilton once warned,
"Toothless, impotent Christianity is a gold mine for statism… But the early Church… taught the Biblical doctrine of Christ's Lordship—that He is Lord of all, Ruler of the kings of the earth."
And while a modern form of toothless Christianity has laid out the red carpet of welcome for globo-homo statism today, the early Church did not do this. When Jesus died and rose from the grave and appeared to more than 500 eyewitnesses, and when the Spirit of God descended upon thousands of them in the city of Jerusalem at Pentecost, and kept falling on churches all throughout the Roman world, the earliest believers recognized that something seismic was happening. They realized that the system of Judaism no longer had any teeth and that God had vacated the temple to make His dwelling place within the hearts of men. And because of that. They spent every waking moment telling people to abandon the sinking ship called Judaism and to cling to the liferaft of Christ before it was too late.
This kind of Christianity was not toothless, nor was it spineless. Our first century ancestors were willing to stand up and die for the cause of Christ, not because they welcomed death or were some kind of kinky weirdo sadists, but because if Christ's resurrection was true, if His Kingship and dominion were true, then all of their countrymen in Judah were about to die eternally and be flung into the lake of fire and brimstone! And in their mind, it was better to die trying to wake up their brothers and sisters to the power of the Gospel than to live a comfortable and cushy life while their own people fell headlong into hell.
Because of that they were willing to be tortured, willing to be viciously martyred by the ones they were praying would get saved, because they saw that God had abandoned the system of temples, priests, and ceremonial law; they saw that the Davidic throne, that had sat empty since the Babylonians leveled the city in 586 BC, had now been inhabited by the true Son of David, Jesus Christ, who was now the Ruler over all the earth (Matthew 28:18).
Think about this from their perspective…
Imagine you were living in Pergamum when this letter first arrived in 66 AD. You had been a diaspora Jew, meaning you were a Jew through and through, but you were living outside of the homeland of Judah. You were the kind of Jew who went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. And at some point, you heard the rumblings of a new Davidic King, a sacrifice to end all sacrifices, and before you knew heads or tails of it, the Holy Spirit of God leaped into your chest, regenerated your soul, and you found yourself crying out: "Jesus is Lord! Christ is King." Soon, your family was echoing this confession. And soon, you were public enemy number one, not just in Judah, but among the non-elect apostate Jews living in your town back home.
Before long, you find a local group of people who confess that Jesus is Lord, and you begin meeting with them underground. You are surprised that there is a mix of Jews and Gentiles, males and females, and slaves and free people coming to these underground gatherings. But, regardless of who is coming, you find that when the Word of God is read, your heart comes alive in a way you have never felt before.
Not long after beginning this journey with Christ and His underground persecuted people, your pastor is publicly arrested and imprisoned. A few weeks later, one of your children is discovered drawing a picture of the fish (a symbol for Christ) in the sand, and they are stoned to death in the public square. Your Church gathers in secret to comfort you, to assure you that your child is with King Jesus in heaven, but you are filled with grief, hemmed in on every side, and clinging to your savior with every ounce of energy in your soul!
Before long, you were pronounced as human vermin and no longer welcome to buy food in the marketplace. The synagogue, which had been your entire network and community, had shunned you and turned its back on you. The whole world around you seemed to be trembling under the weight of two clashing kingdoms. One was rising out of the ashes of persecution and tribulation. One was thrashing like a rabid dog about to face the silver bullet.
It was in the midst of this mayhem that a letter arrived, addressed to the Church, and would be read the next morning, during the Lord's Day service. When you arrived, it was not a letter from Rome. Not a letter from Jerusalem that they were sending a death squad to assassinate you unless you forsake Christ. It was a letter from the island of Patmos. It was a letter from the famed apostle John, a man who helped plant the underground Church you were meeting in, a man who personally discipled your pastors and elders, and a man who would visit the congregation from time to time when he was not imprisoned or exiled. You knew this was going to be a critical letter. But, how important, you would not yet know!
As you come into the clandestine gathering that morning, you look around to make sure no insurgents or hostile actors were seeking to infiltrate your Church like rats burrowing through walls and plaster to make their way into the cupboards. You survey the room carefully and take an account of who is there before you allow your body to relax and sit down. As you take your seat, your elder stands up (the one who had been filling in while your pastor was being tortured in prison). And he says,
"John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come… from the seven Spirits who are before His throne… and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." — Revelation 1:4–5
As you heard those words reverberating from that hidden hall, the first and most obvious thing you would have noticed is that John was not giving you a generic greeting to check up on you in your toil. He had a trinitarian point, a doxological aim, and an eschatological telos in view that he wanted all of you in that room to understand, and that was Christ has been made King over all the earth!
Now, this will become readily apparent as we continue. But, for a moment, let us dissect the words and phrases in this most essential greeting so that we can catch every tidbit of its meaning. And we will do that by looking at:
PART 2: A ROYAL SLAVE (JOHN AS HUMAN AUTHOR)
John not only introduces himself, but He introduces the triune God in heaven, and points to the new Ruler over all the earth, which would have been a supreme comfort to those beleaguered saints suffering in Ephesus, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Smyrna, Laodicea, Pergamum, and Sardis.
John begins this comforting greeting by letting them know who he is and who he is speaking to, by saying:
"John to the seven churches that are in Asia:"
From the outset, John does not claim to speak to modern Christians in North America. He is letting first-century people, in churches with real Turkish addresses, know that these words are coming from a man they knew personally, and who knew the persecution they were walking through intimately.
John was not hiding behind a pulpit in a state-sponsored church in Rome. He was exiled—banished like a leper to the rocky, salt-bitten island of Patmos, which was a small, crescent-shaped island in the Aegean Sea, just off the western coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), about 40 miles southwest of Miletus. It was part of a scattered group of islands used by the Roman Empire as a penal colony, barren, isolated, and harsh. With jagged coastlines, volcanic rock, and barely enough soil to grow anything meaningful, Patmos was not a resort, but a prison. It was a place Rome sent its troublemakers—political dissidents, religious agitators, and anyone who posed a threat to Caesar's cult. And yet, it was on that desolate rock, surrounded by sea spray and solitude, that heaven cracked open and the King of kings revealed His glory to one of the last living apostles.
Why was John on Patmos? Well, it was not because he was a revolutionary. And it was not because he was trying to start a coup. But because he refused to be silent about the truth that Christ is Lord! That single three-worded sentence was turning the world upside down, getting pastors arrested, families beaten, and one of the founding apostles exiled. Because he wouldn't stop saying that "Christ is Lord," "Christ is King," and that "Christ is ruler over all the kings on earth" he was being punished, banished, and exiled, which would have been a comfort to the saints hearing this letter, because they would have seen that John could identify with them in their struggle.
And when John put his pen to parchment, he was not writing to a metaphorical audience at some point in the modern future. He was writing to real churches. Flesh-and-blood pastors that he had hugged, stayed up to the midnight hour with waning lamp oil to pray with, congregations he had eaten with, and faces that he knew and loved. He was writing to men and women that he had baptized their children, but who were now getting arrested, beaten, tortured, and killed. Elders he knew who were leading underground worship services, knowing the Romans could break down the door at any minute and arrest them for being disturbers of the peace. He was writing to deacons who were hiding food for starving saints who couldn't buy or sell in the marketplaces anymore because they were declaring Christ is Lord! He was writing to children who were being taught to whisper the Name of Jesus at night in case prying ears or roving guards would hear them and seize them.
This was real. The blood was real. The danger was real. And John's words of grace and peace had a real context that was not twenty-first-century America.
As David Chilton reminded us, the modern obsession with reducing this letter into a vague forecast for the Church right before the rapture is not just bad hermeneutics—it is an interpretive travesty. Especially when you consider the facts plainly revealed in the opening lines of the book! John tells us that these are things which must soon take place (Revelation 1:1), and he tells his original audience that the time is near (Revelation 1:3), which means this message was not postponed, delayed, or shelved for two thousand years. It was imminent. It was urgent. And it was fulfilled in their generation.
If that's true—and it is—then we must abandon every theology that treats the Church as a footnote in history or a failure limping toward the end. Because if Jesus really ascended the throne in the first century (Revelation 1:5), then the story of the Church is not one of decline, but of dominion. And if He really poured out His Spirit at Pentecost to indwell His people and empower His bride, then we are not witnessing the death of the Church, but the birth of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28). A Kingdom that is expanding like leaven (Matthew 13:33), crashing into the nations like a stone that grows into a mountain (Daniel 2:35), and will never be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).
First, it means the Church does not end in Laodicean apathy, shameful irrelevance, or retreat. She ends in world-conquering, death-crushing dominion, just as Isaiah foretold ("Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end" – Isaiah 9:7), as Paul affirmed ("He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet" – 1 Corinthians 15:25), and as Revelation declares: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever" (Revelation 11:15).
Second, it means that this world is not beyond saving. It is not post-Christian. It is pre-Christian—a field white for harvest (John 4:35), a world awaiting discipleship (Matthew 28:18–20), and a New Jerusalem whose light will cause "the nations [to] walk by it, and the kings of the earth [to] bring their glory into it" (Revelation 21:24). The time is coming when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14).
If you get Revelation wrong, you will live wrong. You will retreat when you should advance. You will hide when you should herald. If you think this book is about escape, you'll live like a coward, clinging to evacuation plans instead of marching orders. But if you see that it's about conquest—about the Lamb who reigns and the saints who overcome—then you will fight like a son of the King, with blood in your veins, Scripture in your mouth, and victory in your grip.
And do not forget—this wasn’t written by a ghostly voice or a faceless scribe. This was John. A man of skin and bones. A disciple who once leaned on Jesus’ chest. A shepherd who had held the hands of the persecuted, wept with widows, buried the martyrs, and preached Christ through bloodshot eyes and trembling lips. This was not the voice of a distant theologian speculating on history, but a faithful brother who bore the scars of tribulation and the ink-stained callouses of obedience. When he wrote to the churches, he wrote with love, not aloofness; with heat, not distance; with hope, not despair. His was a pen guided by the Holy Spirit, but gripped by a weathered hand. And by anchoring this glorious vision in his own name—John—he reminds us that God has chosen to reveal His cosmic plans through real people, with real stories, and real sufferings. A royal slave indeed, John stood as a living witness that Christ reigns now, that the Church is advancing, and that even in exile, the Word cannot be bound.
PART 3: A ROYAL SENDER (TRINITY AS AUTHOR)
As the underground Church gathered for worship, huddled in shadows and silence, a noticeable hush would have descended upon everyone as the scroll from Patmos was unrolled. And while it bore the familiar pen of the apostle John—his cadence, his voice, his style—every heart in that room would have known that the true Author of its message was divine.
This letter, by its own admission, did not come from merely the mouth of man. It was penned by John, yes, but it was breathed out by the eternal Triune God Himself. This message was crafted in heaven, wrapped in trinitarian grace, sealed with hypostatic peace, and hand-delivered to a particular people on earth, through the Spirit's inspiration, flowing in the mind and out of the quill and ink pot of the apostle John. It bore the imprint of the Father's sovereign love, the fullness of the Spirit's presence, and the regal authority of the Son's dominion, even while being etched onto the page by a human man. And everyone in the room would have heard that this letter signaled that God had sent those beleaguered souls a message, and they knew to point every fiber of focus they had towards this message.
Now, let us look at each member of the God-head, and see how they are introduced to these seven suffering churches. And, we will begin with:
THE FATHER — "WHO WAS, WHO IS, AND WHO IS TO COME"
Revelation 1:4 begins:
"Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come…"
This is not ornamental language or decorative theology. This is covenantal clarity. When John introduces the Father as "Him who is and who was and who is to come," he is not innovating—he is invoking. This phrase is a deliberate echo of Exodus 3:14, where God reveals Himself to Moses as "I AM THAT I AM." And while English translations often render it statically, many Hebrew scholars have noted that this sacred Name carries a dynamic, threefold meaning: "I AM who I AM, I AM who I WAS, and I AM who I WILL BE." That is, Yahweh is not bound by time. He does not become, change, or evolve. He simply is—the self-existent, uncreated, eternal One. When John opens this letter with that Name, he anchors the Church in the immovable reality that the God of Moses is still on the throne.
But this is more than a theological callback. It is a covenantal announcement. Just as the burning bush marked the beginning of a new age in redemptive history—the formation of Israel, the Exodus from Egypt, the judgment of Pharaoh—so now this greeting signals another seismic shift. A new Moses has come. A greater Exodus is underway. A new covenant has been enacted. And the same voice that once called Moses to deliver a people from slavery is now calling forth the Church to walk in victory, knowing that the I AM is once again acting in history. He is bringing down temples. He is ending the Old Covenant order. He is putting down another Kingdom that is persecuting His people like the Egypt of old. And He is raising up a true and better Kingdom to displace the pagans of this world. A Kingdom that cannot and will not ever be shaken.
So when the first-century saints heard this greeting—" from Him who is and who was and who is to come"—they would not have listened to a generic reference to God. They would have heard the covenant Name YAHWEH. The burning bush Name. They would have connected the booming voice that shook Mt. Sinai as the Name was now being declared in their sanctuary, assuring them: "I AM is with you. I AM is the one who will not forsake you. And I AM is the one who is here to protect you and fulfill every promise I have made to you."
The early saints needed this reminder. They needed to know that as the priesthood turned to venom, as the temple became a rotting corpse, and as the Jewish people descended into the kind of violence perpetrated by the Egyptians, they needed to know that Yahweh had not abdicated or abandoned them. He was not pacing nervously in heaven. He was actively dismantling the Old Covenant order, putting down the persecutors, breaking their chains of oppression, delivering them to a good land of promise, and ushering in the reign of His Son, the true and perfect King. He was telling them that He was with them in the fire, in the trial, in the sword, and in the spears that pierced them. And because the eternal, unchanging, all-seeing God was with them, they had no room for fear. This would have been a tremendous encouragement to them!
But it does not end with God the Father. God the Holy Spirit is included in this greeting most gloriously and beautifully!
THE SPIRIT — THE SEVENFOLD FLAME BEFORE THE THRONE
The book continues:
“…and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne…”
This is not a reference to seven distinct beings, but apocalyptic shorthand for the Holy Spirit in His covenantal fullness, as many faithful scholars affirm. The number seven throughout Scripture signifies completion, perfection, and covenantal harmony. This particular image draws from Zechariah 4, where the seven-armed menorah burns continuously before God, symbolizing His omniscient gaze and His ever-active Spirit who goes out into all the earth. In the Revelation, that same Spirit stands before the throne of God like the golden lampstand once stood before the veil in the tabernacle—radiant with power, flooding the holy place with light, and mediating the immediate presence of Almighty God.
This is the Spirit Isaiah saw in sevenfold beauty (Isaiah 11:2). This is the Spirit who hovered over creation's waters in Genesis 1. And now, in John's vision, this same Spirit is no longer confined to sacred architecture—He is presiding in the heavenly temple, filling the earth with fire, and orchestrating the transformation of the world through the Church.
To grasp how shocking this would have been to first-century hearers, especially those new to the faith, you must remember what temple life was like. Under the Old Covenant, only the priests were ever allowed to see the seven-armed menorah. Only the priests saw its flames flickering in the holy place. Only the priests, and only during their sacred duties, experienced the presence of the Spirit in the sanctuary. Everyone else—the entire covenant community—stood at a distance, offering sacrifices from the courtyard, unable to draw near, and utterly unfit to enter.
The Spirit's presence, in those days, was mediated. Restricted. Reserved.
But now—everything has changed.
Because of Christ's finished work, the veil has been torn in two. The boundary has been abolished. The temple curtain, once thick enough to stop a man, has been split like parchment. And through the torn flesh of Jesus Christ, the Spirit has been unleashed—not to float aimlessly through the cosmos but to take up residence within the gathered Church.
This means something astonishing: those huddled, hidden believers in Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum were not merely victims of history—they were the sanctuary of God. They were not exiles from the temple—they were the temple. They were not waiting to draw near—they had already been drawn in. And the sevenfold Spirit was no longer limited to Jerusalem's stone columns—He was walking among the lampstands (Revelation 1:20), actively dwelling in their assemblies.
This was the first time in history that non-Levites, non-priests, ordinary men and women—some former pagans, some scattered Jews—were experiencing what had once been reserved for the high priest alone, and not in Jerusalem, not in the sanctuary of Herod, but in hidden rooms, candlelit caves, and homes filled with psalms and prayers. The sanctuary had moved, not downward in glory but outward in grace.
The old temple was finished. The scaffolding of the Old Covenant was being dismantled plank by plank. Because now, the true temple—the temple made without hands—was expanding wherever the people of God assembled. The Spirit had brought the inner court to them. Their worship was now conducted in the true Holy Place, with fire from heaven burning in their midst. And in case you missed the implication: whenever you gather with your local Church—even in weakness, even in obscurity—you are standing in something more glorious than Solomon's temple. You are surrounded by the Father who is the Great I AM, and indwelt by the same Spirit who once burned behind the veil.
This was not mere theology. This was the end of an age. The Old Covenant world was crumbling, and a New Covenant Kingdom was dawning. A new sanctuary had been established, a new people had been consecrated, and a new creation was already igniting under the power of the Spirit.
So when the churches heard that this letter was also from the Spirit, they weren't being handed a doctrine. They were being given a declaration:
"God is with you."
The oil has not run dry. The flame has not gone out. The fire still falls.
The glory of the unseen sanctuary was breaking into their earthly gathering—
And their worship was lighting up the cosmos.
That is how the passage greets these seven churches on behalf of the Spirit. Now, let's focus on how it reveals their savior, Jesus Christ. And, notice what the text says:
THE SON — PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING
The Trinitarian greeting ends where it must—with Christ, the center of history and heaven. And yet John does not merely close this greeting by naming the Son; he unveils Him in the full splendor of His threefold mediatorial office: Prophet, Priest, and King. If the greeting introduces us to the Trinity, then this moment is its crescendo, as the glory of the Son shines in full and radiant supremacy. As Ken Gentry rightly observes, this threefold title is not only a doctrinal formula but a declaration of Christ's enthronement over history, covenant, and creation.
"And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." (Revelation 1:5)
First, He is the faithful witness. This is not the language of passive observation, but of active confrontation. The Greek word martus does not merely describe someone who sees; it describes someone who testifies unto death. Jesus is the True Prophet, the final and faithful mouthpiece of God. He did not blink before Pilate. He did not cower before Caiaphas. He bore witness to the truth, knowing that His witness would secure the cross. And unlike the false prophets of Israel who lied for gain, He told the truth until it killed Him.
Second, He is the firstborn of the dead. This is not poetic language for spiritual rebirth—it is royal resurrection language. It means that Jesus Christ is the first man to rise from the grave, never to die again. He is the High Priest who entered the sanctuary not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood (Hebrews 9:12). He tore down the old system by offering Himself once, for all, and when He rose, He rose as the beginning of a new humanity, the Head of a new creation, and the forerunner of our own bodily resurrection.
Third, He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth—not someday, not eventually, but now. David Chilton reminds us that this is not a prophetic possibility—this is a coronated fact. Jesus Christ is already enthroned, already ruling, and already sovereign over every Caesar, every Sanhedrin, and every synagogue that rejected Him. He is not awaiting permission from Jerusalem or Washington. He is the King of kings, and He has begun the work of subduing the nations beneath His feet.
This is not theological garnish—this is the centerpiece. Christ's threefold office is not just a summary of His work. It is the divine announcement that the new Moses has come, the final Aaron has entered the temple, and the greater David now sits enthroned.
He is Prophet. He is Priest. He is King. And this greeting is not filler. It is fire.
This is your Savior. This is your Champion. This is your Lord. This is your King.
And that brings us to the final point I would like to talk about today, with this greeting, and that is:
PART 4: THE GREETING’S POINT (JESUS IS KING!)
Let us now fix our eyes on the final phrase of this glorious greeting: "Jesus Christ... the ruler of the kings of the earth"(Revelation 1:5). That is not a poetic phrase. That is not eschatological wallpaper. That is not a future possibility. It is a present coronation. It is a declaration that the King reigns now. And to say that in the first century was not a theological nuance—it was treason.
Rome demanded that you declare, "Caesar is lord." Apostate Judaism demanded that you return to Moses and reject the Nazarene. The synagogue demanded silence. The marketplace demanded compromise. But John, in chains for the Gospel, roars out from Patmos with unveiled thunder: Christ reigns.
He reigns: Over Caesar's armies. Over Herod's schemes. Over the Sanhedrin's betrayals. Over the temple's collapse. Over Rome's rise. Over Jerusalem's fall. Over every nation, every system, every demon, every throne.
This is the point of the greeting. The Father is on the throne. The Spirit is ablaze before the throne. And the Son, standing in glory, is not waiting to be enthroned—He is ruling already. His dominion is not hypothetical. It is cosmic, personal, covenantal, and total.
John gives us His threefold title—faithful witness, firstborn from the dead, and Ruler of the kings of the earth—not as a cold doctrinal summary but as a glorious coronation. As Ken Gentry rightly affirms, this is the mediatorial office of Christ in full: Prophet, Priest, and King. And this progression is not incidental. It is the same structure revealed in the tabernacle—the Father in the Holy of Holies, the Spirit in the Holy Place, and the Son ministering in the outer court, not as a mere type or shadow, but as the altar, the sacrifice, and the High Priest combined.
As the Faithful Witness, Jesus is the final Prophet, not speculating but testifying. Not merely offering a message, but becoming the message. He is not a passive observer; He is the legal prosecutor of heaven, speaking judgment over the covenant-breaking nation of Israel. He is the One who declared the temple's doom (Matthew 24), the One who confronted the Sanhedrin with their murder of the Messiah (Matthew 26:64), and the One who stood before Pilate not as a victim, but as a witness with a verdict. As Rushdoony put it, "Jesus not only witnesses against those who are at war with God, but He also executes them."
As the Firstborn from the Dead, Jesus is our Great High Priest. His resurrection is not just a moment of vindication—it is the public declaration that His blood was sufficient. He is the firstborn of a new creation, the greater Passover Lamb who has loosed us (λύσαντι) from our sins by His blood (Revelation 1:5). As Hebrews teaches, He entered the heavenly sanctuary once for all (Hebrews 9:12), interceding by the power of His own indestructible life (Hebrews 7:25). He did not just cleanse the temple—He became the temple. He did not just offer a sacrifice—He is the sacrifice.
And as the Ruler of the kings of the earth, Jesus is already crowned. He does not need a millennial permission slip. He is not waiting for the Antichrist to show up or for Israel to vote Him in. He is not pacing nervously in heaven, hoping the world improves. No—He reigns now. Not symbolically. Not spiritually. Sovereignly. Legally. Eternally.
His rule is not vague or metaphorical. It is judicial, forensic, and immediate. It breaks through every sphere, every structure, and every square inch of reality. He reigns over civil magistrates, for by Him kings reign and rulers decree justice (Proverbs 8:15). Every governor, senator, and judge sits at His pleasure, and He removes them like dust when He wills (Daniel 2:21; Romans 13:1). He reigns over military powers, for Yahweh is a warrior, and the Rider on the white horse shatters nations with a rod of iron (Exodus 15:3; Revelation 19:15). He reigns over judges and lawmakers, for God stands in the divine assembly and has prepared His throne for judgment (Psalm 82:1; Psalm 9:7).
He reigns over bankers, merchants, and CEOs, for the silver is His, and the gold is His, and by Him all things hold together—even stock markets and global economies (Haggai 2:8; Colossians 1:17). He reigns over academia, media, and the elites of culture, for the kings of the earth may take their stand, but He who sits in the heavens laughs and holds them in derision (Psalm 2:2–4). The world is His, and everything in it—every studio, every newsroom, every campus, every script, syllabus, and stage (Psalm 24:1).
He reigns over the family, for Christ is the Head of every husband, every wife submits to Him, and every child is commanded to obey in the Lord (Ephesians 5:22–23; 6:1). He reigns over the Church, for He is the Chief Shepherd who rules over every elder and the Head of the body who must have first place in everything (Colossians 1:18; 1 Peter 5:2–4). He reigns over angels, demons, and every spiritual principality, for He has triumphed over them, stripped them of their weapons, and paraded them in defeat (Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 2:15).
He reigns over Satan himself, for the god of this world has been cast out, his power shattered, and the God of peace will soon crush him beneath your feet (John 12:31; Romans 16:20). He reigns over death, Hades, and the grave, for He holds the keys, and He must reign until the last enemy is defeated and all things are beneath His feet (Revelation 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:25–26).
And He reigns over you. Your body is not your own. Your will is not your own. You were bought with a price. You are not the captain of your soul. Christ owns you. Christ rules you. Christ commands your allegiance, governs your steps, ordains your days, and demands your worship (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:9).
There is no neutral ground. There is no hidden corner. There is no rival throne.
Every crown belongs to Christ. Every domain is His inheritance. Every breath is on loan from the Ruler of the kings of the earth. This is not your quiet time, Jesus. This is not your flannelgraph, Christ. This is the King of Glory—mounted, crowned, enthroned, and advancing. And all of history is His footstool.
This is the comprehensive dominion of Christ. And it is this dominion that provoked the wrath of the nations. Revelation 1:5 is not a doctrinal pleasantry. It is a forensic sentence. It is the opening salvo of a royal war.
As Chilton rightly observes, the phrase "kings of the earth" (hoi basileis tēs gēs) refers primarily to the apostate rulers of first-century Israel. These were the covenant heads who rejected the Messiah, who said, "We have no king but Caesar"(John 19:15), and who led the nation into judgment. These were not foreign monarchs—they were the religious aristocracy of Jerusalem. And Jesus is now ruling over them, judging them, and tearing down their city stone by stone.
That is why they weep when Babylon burns (Revelation 18:9). That is why they cry out for the rocks to fall on them (Revelation 6:15-17). That is why they make war against the Lamb (Revelation 19:19). And that is why they lose.
Jesus is not merely the King in heaven. He is the King of history. The King of judgment. The King of war. The King of priests. And His Kingdom is not in retreat—it is on the march.
He did not just redeem slaves—He enthroned them. He made them priests. He gave them a kingdom (Revelation 1:6). This is the fulfillment of Exodus 19:6 and 1 Peter 2:9. This is not an invisible hope. This is a visible reign. As Chilton notes, "The Kingdom has begun: Christians are now ruling with Christ (Ephesians 1:20-22; Colossians 1:13), and our dominion will increase all across this world (Revelation 5:9-10).
This King we have seen today did not conquer from a throne of ivory, but from a Roman cross. His dominion began with blood, so that rebels like us might become sons, and enemies might be welcomed into His court.
And with that, let us now end with our
CONCLUSION
So what is the only proper response to this kind of King?
Worship.
Not weak-willed emotionalism. Not sentimental spirituality. But a throne-thrilled, gospel-fueled, crown-kissing doxology that starts in your bones and ends in the heavens.
"To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." — Revelation 1:6
That's not a benediction. That's a banner. That's the anthem of heaven, and it's the battle cry of the Church on earth. Glory belongs to Jesus because He alone is worthy. Dominion belongs to Jesus because He alone is King. Forever and ever—because there is no rival, no end, and no possibility of anyone unseating Him.
Let that sink in.
Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth—has already begun His reign. His crown is not waiting in a glass case in heaven. It is on His Head. His throne is not empty. It is occupied. And His Kingdom is not postponed. It is present. It is progressing. It is prevailing.
That's why the early Church risked everything, met in secret, and was willing to die. They didn't believe they were fighting for a future king; they believed they were serving a reigning King. If that was true in the first century, it is even truer now.
That means we don't cower before the world—we confront it.
We don't retreat from the culture—we rebuild it.
We don't bow to the idols of the age—we break them beneath the scepter of Christ.
We don't pine for the rapture—we proclaim the reign.
We don't wait for Jesus to take dominion—we live like He already has because He has.
And hear this: Because He reigns, we reign with Him. Revelation 1:6 tells us plainly—He has made us to be a kingdom and priests to His God and Father. That's not a metaphor. That's the mission. That's not poetry. That's the position. You and I are not serfs scavenging in the margins of some far-off kingdom—we are the Kingdom. We are the living stones of His royal city. We are the consecrated priests of His eternal temple.
He has not only saved you. He has seated you. Not just pardoned you, but promoted you. You are not a bystander to the reign of Christ. You are not like the Old Covenant people who looked on from a distance! You are a soldier in His army and a priest in His house. You have been washed and given the privilege of war. You, even though you are not a son of Aaron, have been sanctified to serve in His presence as a priest. You have been justified to rule. He didn't just pull you out of hell—He doesn't leave you pining away in the unemployment office of His Kingdom! No! He employed you and gave you a job! You are a Kingdom ambassador. You are a priest! That new title, in Him, now sets the entire trajectory of your life!
So what does that mean? It means that the Kingdom is not only coming to you—it is advancing through you. It means you are the embassy of Christ on enemy soil. It means your prayers shake the throne room, your worship rattles the gates of hell, your work builds cathedrals in time, and your witness is used by God to overthrow the powers of darkness.
You are a priest, so live with holiness.
You are a soldier, so fight with valor.
You are a citizen, so build like it matters.
Revelation 1:4-6 isn't just a doctrinal introduction. It's a declaration of war. It tells you exactly who you are, where you stand, and who you serve. You are a subject of the King of kings. You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God. You are a priest to your God. And your job is not to escape the world, but to transform it.
Let me say that again: You are not called to escape. You are called to transform. By the Word. By the Spirit. By the blood. And by the authority of the Lamb who sits upon the throne.
So let this passage change the way you think. Let it transform how you parent, how you vote, how you worship, how you labor, how you sacrifice, how you suffer, and how you speak. Christ's kingship is not some dusty doctrine tucked away in the attic of your theology. It is the blazing center of reality—and it demands your allegiance now.
Do not sell your loyalty to presidents who cannot save you.
Do not bow your heart to states that will not survive His judgment.
Do not put your hope in movements, machines, or ministries that are not centered on His dominion.
You serve the King. The risen King. The reigning King. The returning King.
So stand up, shake off your apathy, tighten your grip on the sword of the Spirit, strengthen your knees in prayer, plant your feet in the Gospel, fix your eyes on His throne, and get to work. Because Christ is King, and this world is His inheritance.
You're not here to spectate. You're here to build. Build homes, churches, schools, businesses, laws, cultures, and nations that kneel before Jesus. You are not dust in the wind. You are commissioned soldiers in the army of the King, and your life matters because your King reigns.
So let the incense rise. Let the prayers ascend. Let the worship roar. Let the gospel advance. Let the enemies be shattered. And let the joy of the saints explode across every nation until the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.
