We’ve just celebrated Christ’s coming and his birth during Advent and Christmas. It’s a striking point of interest that none of his disciples held any such observance and were most likely unaware of the details of that Bethlehem night, nor, likely, the ‘babyhunt’ that ensued (at least not its connection to Jesus), nor the family’s escape to Egypt, nor all the angelic interventions, the prophetic fulfillments, the multiple dramas playing out. Each of the disciples encountered him as a man, Jesus, the Galilean, the carpenter, the son of Joseph of Nazareth. They began following ‘the teacher’ as apprentices to be taught, to be directed, to fulfill a mandate. Their tenure with him turned up one shocking turn of events after another, with Jesus’ otherworldliness, his divinity, building to a crescendo at Calvary and those surreal days following.

Revelation 1:1-20, John 1:1-14

   Rev. 1:1-8 – Preface to the __________________________________ of Jesus

   Rev. 1:9-11 – John’s _________________________________________ posture

   Rev. 1:12-20 – The ___________________________________________ of Jesus

   John 1:1-14 – John ____________________________________ Jesus’ identity