Revelation 1:9–11 shows us the setting in which John received this vision. In Revelation 1:12–16 John attempts to describe what Jesus Christ looked like. Revelation 1:17–20 relates Jesus’ further self-description, plus the mandate that necessarily follows from his glorious identity.
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.