Christ Jesus had given his revelation to John with the explicit command that John write it down and send this revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 1:11), where in turn this revelation was to be read to the members (Revelation 1:3). When the hearers in these churches now heard at the end of the public reading Jesus’ insistence that whatever they had heard in the last couple of hours originated in fact from none less than Jesus Christ himself, they surely had incentive to digest extra carefully every word they had
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”