IBS Application for Revelation 1:9

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

I find that this passage is quite fitting for this week’s theme of perseverance. This book was written for the purpose of encouraging the Church to have patience and endurance throughout their life for the particular purpose of waiting for Christ’s return. But there’s even more in the way of perseverance to unpack by examining not only the purpose of the book of Revelation, but also in John’s character.

In examining the book itself, we see Christ’s promise to us that He will be coming back someday. Until then, we are to look forward to His return. But, since we don’t know when exactly it will happen, we’re told to endure this time with patience.

It’s meant to be an encouragement to us to know what awaits us after Christ’s return. But it’s also a struggle to wait. And we’ve been waiting for a long time for Christ to come back. But we see more encouragement in the example of John as he waited for deliverance on Patmos.

John had seen a fair amount of persecution up to this point: I believe that the Romans had tried to kill him at least twice, and both attempts failed, and they had attempted to kill him because of his preaching of the Gospel. I imagine that having seen both attempts fail, they figured that exile to Patmos would serve well enough to shut him up. John was on Patmos for an unknown amount of time by himself before Jesus appeared to him again to show him this Revelation. The whole time he was on the island, he was probably waiting for deliverance in some form or another, whether it be death or some saving grace that would get him off the island. He may have wondered why God was silent, but I don’t know. But I do think he was quite pleasantly surprised to see that God still had an even greater plan to use him to spread the word of Christ’s return.

He waited patiently for God to reveal His plan for the remainder of John’s life, and Christ told him what he’d be doing: Recording what he would see in a book to be shared with the world. We might not know how exactly this message made it’s way off Patmos, but God made it happen somehow, and we have the encouraging truths contained within it because of John’s perseverance.


It is my prayer this week that God would grant me patience like John had. I struggle with the silence in between the times that God chooses to speak to me. But if John can have supernatural patience and endurance, then I can too. So, I’ll pray every morning that I would be given the strength and endurance to get through the times of silence.

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