Evidence For The Jesus Of The Book Of Revelation

I could easily be ignorant of some work that's been done on this subject, but, at least in my experience, the evidence for the Jesus of Revelation has been neglected. We hear a lot about the Jesus of the Synoptics, the Jesus of the fourth gospel, or the Jesus of Paul's letters, for example, but seemingly far less about the Jesus of Revelation. Given how much Revelation has been criticized over the years, even by professing Christians at times, and given the importance of what Jesus says and does in other contexts in the book, the evidence for the Jesus of Revelation ought to get more attention.

The subject could be approached from a variety of angles. What I want to focus on here is how the Jesus of Revelation is similar to the Jesus of other contexts, like the gospels.

Like the Jesus of the gospels (e.g., Matthew 10:26-31, Mark 6:50, Luke 12:7, John 6:20), the Jesus of Revelation tells his audience to not fear (1:17, 2:10).

The reference to "first love" in Revelation 2:4, as the first correction of the first church he addresses in Revelation 2-3, is reminiscent of Jesus' comments about the primacy of love in the gospels (Matthew 22:37-40, etc.).

Jesus often used the term "amen", typically translated as "truly" (or the double "truly, truly"). That adds credibility to the reference to himself as "the Amen" in Revelation 3:14.

The Jesus of the gospels refers to the theme of persistent knocking (Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 13:25), including his own (Luke 12:36), as does the Jesus of Revelation (3:20).

Jesus often appeals to the concept of keys in the gospels (Matthew 16:19, 18:18, 23:13, Luke 11:52). He sometimes appeals to the concept in Revelation as well (1:18, 3:7).

Jesus often refers to doing things in "my name" in the gospels and Acts (Matthew 19:29, Mark 9:39, Luke 21:17, John 14:14, Acts 9:15, etc.), and he does so in Revelation (2:3, 2:13, 3:8).

Repentance is a major theme of Jesus in the gospels (Mark 1:15, John 3:3, etc.). It is in Revelation as well (2:5, 2:16, 2:21-22, 3:3, 3:19).

The themes of the imminence of his second coming and the importance of being ready for it are found in both Revelation (3:11, 22:7, 22:12, 22:20) and other sources (Mark 13:35, Acts 1:7, etc.).

I'm not trying to be exhaustive. I've just brought up several of the examples I've noticed over the years. I hope more people will do further work on the subject.