Revelation 1

 ¹This is what God showed to Jesus Christ, so that he could tell his servants what must happen soon. Christ then sent his angel with the message to his servant John. ²And John told everything that he had seen about God's message and about what Jesus Christ had said and done.

    ³God will bless everyone who reads this prophecy to others, and he will bless everyone who hears and obeys it. The time is almost here. ⁴From John to the seven churches in Asia. I pray that you

   will be blessed

   with kindness and peace

   from God, who is and was

   and is coming.

   May you receive

   kindness and peace

   from the seven spirits

   before the throne of God.

    ⁵May kindness and peace

   be yours

   from Jesus Christ,

   the faithful witness.

   Jesus was the first

   to conquer death,

   and he is the ruler

   of all earthly kings.

   Christ loves us,

   and by his blood

   he set us free

   from our sins.

    ⁶He lets us rule as kings

   and serve God his Father

   as priests.

   To him be glory and power

   forever and ever! Amen.

    ⁷Look! He is coming

   with the clouds.

   Everyone will see him,

   even the ones who stuck

   a sword through him.

   All people on earth

   will weep because of him.

   Yes, it will happen! Amen.

    ⁸The Lord God says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the one who is and was and is coming. I am God All-Powerful!"

A Vision of the Risen Lord

 ⁹I am John, a follower together with all of you. We suffer because Jesus is our king, but he gives us the strength to endure. I was sent to Patmos Island, because I had preached God's message and had told about Jesus. ¹⁰On the Lord's day the Spirit took control of me, and behind me I heard a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet. ¹¹The voice said, "Write in a book what you see. Then send it to the seven churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea." ¹²When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. ¹³There with the lampstands was someone who seemed to be the Son of Man. He was wearing a robe that reached down to his feet, and a gold cloth was wrapped around his chest. ¹⁴His head and his hair were white as wool or snow, and his eyes looked like flames of fire. ¹⁵His feet were glowing like bronze being heated in a furnace, and his voice sounded like the roar of a waterfall. ¹⁶He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword was coming from his mouth. His face was shining as bright as the sun at noon. ¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead person. But he put his right hand on me and said:

   Don't be afraid! I am the first, the last, ¹⁸and the living one. I died, but now I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys to death and the world of the dead. ¹⁹Write what you have seen and what is and what will happen after these things. ²⁰I will explain the mystery of the seven stars that you saw at my right side and the seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the seven churches.