“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.  John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus.” 

Revelation 1:8, 9

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom.”  John is writing to the seven churches in Asia, and, in turn, to all believers.  The aged John, leader in the church of Jesus Christ, friend of Jesus and faithful leader in the body of Christ, and much more – including a prisoner of Rome on the Island of Patmos, off the coast of Greece.  This is the same John that wrote, by the inspiration of God, of the glories of the Kingdom of Heaven, now on earth.

He is now old, experienced and tested in the furnaces of life.  He is writing to the seven churches in Asia.  He sees himself as their partner in tribulation and fellow member of the new thing on the earth, the Kingdom of God.  He is being preserved by Jesus Christ himself though his situation is perilous.

Jerusalem is destroyed, the Temple razed.  The nation of Israel is scattered. All hopes that Israel would arise as a strong normal nation are dashed. It is into this desperate situation that God spoke, through John.

The hope of all believers is not in a nation called Israel but in the New Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated by his sacrificial death and resurrection.  Rome has turned against the believers.  John is himself  their prisoner.

That, friend, is the backdrop of our own discipleship.  Forces of the enemy are arrayed against the church of Jesus Christ.  This is the constant reality the church experiences.  May we hear what the Spirit is saying to us today, in Century number 21.