John- In the Spirit.

Rev 1:9  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

 

John, the apostle of Jesus Christ. John our brother. John our companion in tribulation. John our companion in the kingdom. John our companion in patience of Jesus Christ.   John who was in the island of Patmos because of Jesus- the word of God, for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

There can be no doubt that John is introducing himself here as one who is relatable to all who follow Christ Jesus. John lives for Jesus His Savior. John is on an Island and this is what we know of the Island Patmos.

 

('Patmos (Greek: Πάτμος, pronounced [ˈpatmos]) is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is perhaps best known today as the location the disciple John received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written.

 

The text of Revelation states that John was on Patmos, a Greek island where, by most biblical historians, he is considered to be exiled as a result of anti-Christian persecution under the Roman emperor Domitian.[1][2]') 

 

John perhaps exiled to this island and it is here that he is given Jesus' Revelation.

 

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day…

 

John was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.

 

Now this deserves a more in-depth study and for that we need to read from a Biblical scholar- 

 

The following is taken from the book- Daniel and Revelation written by Uriah Smith.

 

'p 367 -- On the Lord's Day. - What day is intended by this designation? On this question four different positions are taken by different classes.

 

1. One class hold that the expression "the Lord's day" covers the whole gospel dispensation, and does not mean any particular twenty-four-hour day.

2. Another class hold that the Lord's day is the day of judgment, the future "day of the Lord," so often brought to view in the Scriptures.

3. The third view, and the one perhaps the most prevalent, is that the expression refers to the first day of the week.

4. Still another class hold that it means the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord.

 

1. To the first of these positions it is sufficient to reply that the book of Revelation is dated by the writer, John, in the Isle of Patmos, and upon the Lord's day. The writer, the place where it was written, and the day upon which it was dated, have each a real existence, and not merely a symbolical or mystical one. But if we say that the day means the gospel dispensation, we give it a symbolical or mystical meaning, which is not admissible. Besides, this position involves the absurdity of making John say, sixty-five years after the death of Christ, that the vision which he records was seen by him in the gospel dispensation, as if any Christian could possibly be ignorant of that fact!

 

2. The second position, that it is the day of judgment, cannot be correct; for while John might have had a vision concerning the day of judgment, he could not have had one on that day when it is yet future. The word translated on is en (en), and is defined by Robinson when relating to time, as follows: "Time when; a definite point or period, in, during, on, at, which anything takes place." It never means about or concerning. Hence they who refer it to the judgment day either contradict the language used, making it mean concerning instead of on, or they make John state a strange falsehood, by saying that he had a vision upon the Isle of Patmos, nearly eighteen hundred years ago, on the day of judgment which is yet future!

 

3. The third view is that by "Lord's day" is meant the first day of the week, a view by far the most generally entertained.

 

p 368 -- On this we inquire for the proof.

 

What evidence have we for this assertion? The text itself does not define the term Lord's day; hence if it means the first day of the week, we must look elsewhere in the Bible for the proof that that day of the week is ever so designated. The only other inspired writers who speak of the first day at all, are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul; and they speak of it simply as "the first day of the week." They never speak of it in a manner to distinguish it above any other of the six working days. And this is the more remarkable, viewed from the popular standpoint, as three of them speak of it at the very time when it is said to have become the Lord's day by the resurrection of the Lord upon it, and two of them mention it some thirty years after that event.

 

If it is said that the term "Lord's day" was the usual term for the first day of the week in John's day, we ask, Where is the proof of this?

 

It, cannot be found.

 

But we have proof of just the contrary.

 

If this was the universal designation of the first day of the week at the time the Revelation was written, the same writer would most assuredly call it so in all his subsequent writings. But John wrote the Gospel after he wrote the Revelation, and yet in that Gospel he calls the first day of the week, not Lord's day, but simply "the first day of the week." For proof that the Gospel was written at a period subsequent to the Revelation, the reader is referred to such standard authorities as the Religious Encyclopedia, Barnes's Notes (Gospels), Bible Dictionaries, Cottage Bible, Domestic Bible, Mine Explored, Union Bible Dictionary,Comprehensive Bible, Paragraph Bible, Bloomfield, Dr. Hales, Horne, Nevins, and Olshausen.

 

And what still further disproves the claim here set up in behalf of the first day, is the fact that neither the Father nor the Son has ever claimed the first day as his own in any higher sense than he has each or any of the other laboring days. Neither of them has ever placed any blessing upon it, or

 

p 369 -- attached any sanctity to it. If it was to be called the Lord's day from the fact of Christ's resurrection upon it, Inspiration would doubtless have somewhere so informed us. But there are other events equally essential to the plan of salvation, as, for instance, the crucifixion and the ascension; and in the absence of all instruction upon the point, why not call the day upon which either of these occurred, the Lord's day, as well as the day upon which he rose from the dead?

 

4. The three positions already examined having been disproved, the fourth - that by Lord's day is meant the Sabbath of the Lord - now demands attention. And this of itself is susceptible of the clearest proof.

 

1. When God gave to man in the beginning six days of the week for labor, he expressly reserved the seventh day to himself, placed his blessing upon it, and claimed it as his holy day.

2. Moses told Israel in the wilderness of Sin on the sixth day of the week, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." We come to Sinai, where the great Lawgiver proclaimed his moral precepts in awful grandeur; and in that supreme code he thus lays claim to his hallowed day: "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: ... for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." By the prophet Isaiah, about eight hundred years later, God spoke as follows: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on MY HOLY DAY, ... then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord," etc. Isa. 58:13. We come down to New-Testament times, and He who is one with the Father declares expressly, "The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Can any man deny that that day is the Lord's day, of which he has emphatically declared that he is the Lord? Thus we see that whether it be the Father or the Son whose title is involved, no other day can be called the Lord's day but the Sabbath of the great Creator.

 

One more thought, and we leave this point. There is in this dispensation one day distinguished above the other days of the week as the Lord's day. How completely does this great

p 370 -- fact disprove the claim put forth by some that there is no Sabbath in this dispensation, but that all days are alike. And by calling it the Lord's day, the apostle has given us, near the close of the first century, apostolic sanction for the observance of the only day which can be called the Lord's day, which is the seventh day of the week. '

 

John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.

 

How wondrous it is to be in the Spirit. John was in the Spirit and I believe it's safe to say that He was in the Spirit a lot. That being in the Spirit was perhaps typical for Him but not perhaps when He was in the Spirit did He have visions and hear voices and such. This day however He was blessed with something extremely magnificent, something He was given so in turn he could give it to all mankind. May we be blessed as we continue to read, to understand, and keep all that is said.

All by the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST now and forever!!!!!!!