Christ Holds His Churches Accountable

Transcript

GR 1980
Christ Holds His Churches Accountable
10/23/2016
Revelation 1:10-13
Gil Rugh

We are going to the Book of Revelation in your bibles, that last book of the bible. God’s final closing word to His people and it’s a word about the future. A word that is to encourage, that is to challenge, that is to warn them and to call them to live in light of what God has said will be our destiny in the glory of His presence.

We began looking into the section that begins with verse nine. The first eight verses formed an introduction and gave us some basic information. Now we are going to move more into details, and we have really the first major vision of John and fitting, it is vision of Jesus Christ Himself. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ so it’s fitting that the book begins with a revelation of His person and it puts everything in proper perspective. This is a revelation given for His churches. For seven individual churches and then for the individual churches that will exist down through history.

I think it is interesting to see how Jesus appears to John. It has been over sixty years since John last saw Jesus Christ. In the Book of Acts, chapter 1, Jesus had that final meeting with His disciples before His ascension to heaven. That would have occurred in the early 30’s and now John is writing in about 95 A.D; 60 plus years have passed and now Christ is going to appear to him. It’s interesting; John has been through many difficulties as we saw. He’s been persecuted, he’s seen those who were precious and close to him die. His own brother James, we noted was beheaded by Herod. Peter who had formed an inner circle with John has been martyred. Paul who had made such an impact in the establishing of churches has been martyred. John himself is on a rocky island, which is really a penal colony for the Romans, and it has been difficult. Yet Christ appears to John and it isn’t often that what we have is that sentimental soft easy going Savior. It’s not that He comes up and whispers in the ear of John. John I know it’s been hard and I just don’t want you to be discouraged, I want to tell you, I’ve been with you the whole time and I’m aware of everything.

No, He comes and appears to John in awesome striking glory in a display of His power, the wonder of His person. So great that it overwhelms John and he just collapses. He’s overwhelmed. And I say this because I fear that sometimes we get this idea as believers of just an easy going comfortable relationship with Christ and He is just so pleased to have us and by His grace He is pleased to call us to Himself and to care for us but we must never lose our perspective. He is God, He will be served as God. He must be honored as God. We will give account to Him as God and He is not understanding of our failures in that sense. He knows our frame that we are but dust. He doesn’t deal with us in an unkind or harsh way but He is serious about our honoring Him and giving Him the glory that is due Him and with our obedience.

So we were looking into the section that began with verse nine and John identified himself with those that he is writing to; “the seven church in Asia.” He called himself his brother and a fellow partaker in tribulation and we noted tribulation is the lot of believers. It hasn’t gotten better for John and it wasn’t a failure on John’s part. After over sixty years of ministry beginning with Christ’s earthly life and his faithful ministry with Him being the innermost-innermost disciple. The disciple that is referred to as the “one that Jesus loved.” He had a particular relationship all the way down to the present time but John says, “I’m a fellow partaker in your tribulations as well.” You’re going through troubles and I’m going through troubles. Tribulation, “thlipsis” the Greek word; it is the trials, the tribulations, the suffering. Jesus said, and we looked at this; “In the world you have tribulations, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). “Not that I’ll see that they don’t afflict you. I’ll keep you from the kind of suffering that others in the world go through and believers have the added affliction that John is talking about here because they’re identified with Christ and give testimony to the Savior that they love and serve.”

I’m a “fellow partaker of tribulation and the kingdom” and John is talking about here that we as believers share in a kingdom that is yet to come. That’s our common destiny. We share together in the tribulations that come to the children of God in this world in particular but don’t lose sight of the focus. That is where the Book of Revelation is taking us, (Chapters 21, 22, 23), the kingdom that we share in common as our ultimate goal and destiny.

Then he said I share together “in your perseverance.” If you go through tribulation on your way to the kingdom you have to persevere and that word, “steadfastness” it means you live under the pressure. It doesn’t say that it is removed. What God is doing is using perseverance as part of His plan to develop our character to prepare us for the kingdom that He has promised us. So, we share together in the perseverance and that perseverance comes from our submitting to the Spirit, drawing upon His enabling power to live for Him through trials and difficulty.

John is on the island called Patmos; not a great place to be. Early history tells us and it is not inspired but it is the best we can put together the record. It goes back very early that John spent his later years in the city of Ephesus as the focal point of his ministry in the church at Ephesus and then ministering out from there. It is interesting to me that Jesus chooses to appear to John and give him this ultimate revelation and the fullest most complete revelation of God’s prophetic plan in the worst of circumstances.

Why wouldn’t He come to John when he was in the city of Ephesus where he could more comfortably absorb this revelation, where it would be more convenient to record it because he has to write this down? Remember we talked about the writing materials. Some of you have gone to the Middle East and part of your trip took you to Egypt. When we were in Egypt and we went to where they make papyrus, which was the writing material, and they do it the old way. Go out and you gather the reeds and then you bring them in and you dry them out and you put them together and the work that it is just so you can make a sheet you can write on. I have hanging in my study at home some of the papyri that we purchased on a trip. It reminds me and it is amazing how you could write on parchment, which was animal skin, which was much more expensive so much more limited. This is the writing materials you have, then the ink you have to use and the pens they have. Sit down if you want some practice. Write out the whole book of Revelation. This is what John had to do. He’s going to be instructed in verse 11 you “write what you see.”

What we have as the Book of Revelation had to be written down by John. Why would you put him on the Isle of Patmos; that’s a ten by six-mile rocky barren island of John’s time, which was used as a penal colony. It had mines where these prisoners could work to mine materials for the Romans. Not a great place and yet this is where this great culminating revelation will be given to the disciple John and a reminder in spite of his circumstance and situation the One He serves is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He’s here by divine appointment because Christ has all power but it’s part of His purpose and plan to have John go through these trying experiences. Paul said he had to go through them too. You know we want to be used in greater ways by God but we want to be used in greater ways with the least discomfort possible. Paul said he had to endure an on-going buffeting by an emissary of Satan so that God could keep him a more usable instrument. Paul says that if that’s what it takes bring on the suffering, bring on the trial because I want to be used. So that’s what is happening here in this context.

He says, he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” and he is here because of his “testimony for Christ” at the end of verse nine. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and you have it capitalized in your bible, the word ‘Spirit’; in the Greek text, it’s not capitalized, they don’t capitalize these kinds of words. So the context has to tell you whether you are talking about the Spirit of God, capital ‘S’ as we have here or small ‘s’ like your human spirit. Both would be true here. The Holy Spirit is obviously at work in John’s life here as he is going to write and record these things. We are told this is the consistent plan of God, the Spirit of God moving within the instrument that He is using to guarantee the accuracy and correctness of what is recorded but here it is probably referring more to John’s spirit, his own human spirit. He is being transported here and prepared to receive in his spirit this vision of what is to come.

It’s on the Lord’s day and there are a couple of possibilities on the Lord’s day; we think of Sunday we will meet together on the Lord’s day. We don’t know that it was used that early as John is writing but we do know in the Book of Acts they refer to meeting on the first day of the week so he may be talking about it was Sunday. And he is again as he would when he was in Ephesus, meet together for special focus on the Lord and worship of Him. He’ll be absent with some of the fellowship he would otherwise have but it could be Sunday. It could be what we refer to more specifically as the Day of the Lord and meaning in my spirit I was transferred into the future Day of the Lord. That’s true as well because everything from Chapter 6 to 19 is going to encompass that period of time we know of as the Day of the Lord, the judgments and then the kingdom which is the climax. I don’t know that it is possible to say finally; both are true, could be true, we don’t know it could be Sunday. Good writers like Robert Thomas, some of you use his commentary; believe its Sunday. Other good commentaries like John Walvoord who was president of Dallas believes it’s the Day of the Lord. I’ll resolve it for you saying, “I’ve held both at different times and I’ve held both at one time.” He could be being transferred into the Day of the Lord on the Lord’s day but whichever one is specific here won’t change what we’re looking at.

In this state of mind, John hears behind him this blast of a trumpet. It’s a voice not a literal trumpet but it sounds like a trumpet and the point to make is this is a voice that commanded attention; you will listen to this voice. It’s like if you’ve been in a place and all of a sudden there is a blast of thunder and it sounds like it’s enveloped you; you know you almost stop and catch your breath. That’s what the sound of the trumpet is, and we think of that as trumpets for an occasion calling everybody’s attention and that is what this voice is. It is a voice saying something but it has that power and authority to it that requires that you listen.

It’s not like Christ comes now after 60 years and all John’s been through and Jesus just comes up and puts His arm on his shoulder and whispers in his ear. John it Me, it’s good to see you. I know you are going through hard times. I’m not saying that Christ is not loving and compassionate and intimate with us but we must never lose sight of who He is and who we are.

This voice starts right in, this commanding voice, “Write in a book” (v.10). We noted it probably will be a scroll. They wouldn’t have a book like we would have. Probably more the papyri scroll. It could be rolled up with extensive rather than inner leaf like a parchment writing. “Write in a book what you see,” John is going to get a vision of future things. You write it in a scroll, in a book “and you send it to the seven churches.” So here we go. This is a letter for the seven churches. This was mentioned in (v.4.) in the introduction, that John when he put the introduction to this is addressing the seven churches. So “John” in (v.4), “to the seven churches that are in Asia:” Now we are into the vision and John tells why you had that introduction. Because the voice that spoke to me says, you “write” and “send it to the seven churches:” It just wasn’t my idea. Some commentators have noted here, you “write it to the seven churches” and these are the seven churches (v.4.) “That are in Asia:”

Why didn’t God just say, “Write to the church singular in Asia?” That could have encompassed more than just the seven. It could have encompassed Colosse for example where the letter to the Colossians was sent. It’s sent to seven individual churches, each of those will get individual messages. We will talk about this when we get into Chapters 2 and 3 but I think it is important, it is consistent with relevantly few exceptions in the New Testament; we talk about individual local churches. Each individual church is dealt with as an independent, individual identity, responsible to God directly so you don’t have the churches of Asia bound together in any kind of quote, “denominational structure.” God has chosen to manifest the presence of the church singular, the body of Christ in the world in physical tangible individual local churches. That’s serious business and we’ll see how serious it is when we come into Chapters 2 and 3. These are accountable to God and you know it works for a variety of benefits. One of the things it does it keep from the whole church singular existing in the world at given time from being corrupted at the same time. You know what happens in a denomination when they go doctrinally bad it spreads through every church in the denomination. Roman Catholicism has a centralized structure with one leader and the errors and heresy spread everywhere where they have influence in churches but God’s plan is individual churches directly accountable to Christ Who is the head of the church and of every individual local church.

The seven churches are mentioned here. I ought to have a map to show the seven churches. What you need to know is we are going to start with Ephesus. That is where John was headquartered and now he has been exiled to Patmos, maybe 35 miles more or less from Ephesus, out in the Aegean Sea that comes up between Asia Minor and Greece, then the Mediterranean down below. You start with Ephesus and 30 to 35 miles is in between each of these churches as you go around. Start with Ephesus and you’ll go up and around. They form a circle, an oblong circle, an irregular circle. As you are aware that is the route that would have been delivered in the postal route of that time, so that is what he is going to do. Each of these letters would be delivered, if you will, as they would be on the delivery of the mail. Seven are selected and I think that will give a complete picture of how He views and what will take place in the churches down through history. You have these seven churches arranged in this circle and then you are told and we will say more about the individual churches as we come along…

In (v.12.),”I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man.” (v.13.) So here’s this picture; each church is represented by a lampstand and then in the middle of that circle you have One standing who is like the son of man. It is an awesome picture.

The lampstand symbolizes the church, each church. We know that because you come down to (v.20.) and at the end of the verse, the last statement, “The seven lampstands are the seven churches.” So this symbol is interpreted for us. That lampstand represents a local church. That local church is to be a light in the darkness. We are to be lights in the world. This is true of God’s people in the Sermon on the Mount. Come back to Matthew chapter 5. Jesus said in (v.14.) to his disciples, his followers. “You are the light of the world.” You can see why we would have a lampstand symbolizing a church. His followers have been gathered together into local churches and each local church is to be a shining light in the world. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; (v.14) nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” (v.15) In those days it would have been the oil lamps that had to be replenished with oil and the wick and they set it on a stand so it was up; like we have our modern lamps with the same idea. You don’t put them down on the floor. You put them up. Either they have a base or you set them on a table. The purpose of a lamp is to give light so you don’t turn on the light then put something over it to cover it. Well if the disciples are the light in the world, you think about that, the spiritual light the world has is ‘us.’ That’s what Jesus says, (v.14.) “You are the light of the world.” The world lives in darkness devoid of the knowledge of God, cut off from a relationship with the God who is light. So (v.16.) “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

It fits with the command in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, “You shall be holy for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16 from Leviticus 11:44b). We are giving off the knowledge of God in the words we speak and in the life, we live. That’s the point, we are lights in the world.

You’re in Matthew. We might as well stop at Chapter 12 and just coming judgment and here I mention this because this is where He is going with the churches in evaluating them. (v.33.) “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; a tree is known by its fruit.” Then He condemns the unbelieving religious leaders of His day. (v.34.) “You brood of vipers, how can you being evil, speak what is good? The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (v.35.) “The good man brings out of his good heart, good things,” and we will be judged by our words. Why? Because our words reflect what is in our heart. Let them see your good works, your life, what you say, how you live reflected.

In the Gospel of John, John, the writer, the penman here for the Book of Revelation wrote in the Gospel of John chapter 1. “Christ came into the world.” What was the problem? “Light came into the world but men loved darkness rather than light.” (John 1:4) “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” That life that He brought, spiritual life. (John 3:16) For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” In Him was life because you must believe in Him if you are to have life, everlasting life, spiritual life and the life was the Light. What does light do? It makes things known. If all the lights were off in this room, you wouldn’t be able to see anything. If you were brought into this room and had never been here before and no lights were on you would see nothing, you would know nothing about it. That is the picture spiritually. Men and women are in spiritual darkness. They really know nothing about God. In their ignorance, they think they know. They have their religion as the Jews did but the problem is they were in spiritual darkness until the life of Christ comes in and the light.

This is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Remember (2 Corinthians 4:4) that the work of the devil is to hinder the proclamation of the gospel of Christ, the light of the gospel should shine into the hearts of men. That’s the light and that’s why there is often a strong reaction and resistance.

That’s why John is on the island of Patmos for his testimony for Christ. It happens when you shine light on people. Look at what is going on in the political scene; everybody wants to what? Shine the light; make things known about someone else that are derogatory. Now you shine the light of God’s truth, His holiness on people who love the darkness rather than the light. They don’t like that. That antagonizes them. Now sometimes we forget that and think well, I probably didn’t approach it right, I probably was too aggressive, I probably… Now we want to learn how to be as effective as we can but you know what? I can’t turn on the light and have someone who loves the darkness not be offended by it. It’s like someone sleeping. You walk in the room and turn on the light. They say, ‘turn off the light.’ Why? I love the darkness, I’m sleeping. That’s the picture of the unbeliever.

So the churches are lampstands; that’s what we are. That’s the tragedy of conflict and divisions in churches. The world looks and says, “Wow, we sang about unity, they preach about unity, it didn’t do much for them did it?” Paul had to tell the Galatians, “don’t bite and tear each other apart.” (Chapter 5:15) So we are lights in the world.

Come to Philippians 2 and then we will come back to John 1. Philippians 2:12 fits what we talk about. We are told to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling;” (v.13.) “for it is God who is at work in you.” We talk about our responsibilities but we carry out our responsibilities effectively and efficiently when we draw upon the enabling power of “God who is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (v.13.) “Do all things without grumbling or disputing;” (v.14.) so you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in whom you appear as lights in the world,” (v.15.) “holding fast the word of life,” (v.16.) So here, we are giving off the light of God. We are lights in the world. God’s truth is light. It brings knowledge of Him.

People who are not ready to bow before Him and receive the truth concerning Him are not going to like you being a light. That’s why they may be antagonized by you in different settings. Oh, they’re goody, goody, two shoes. Oh, they think they are so righteous and we don’t want to be self-righteous. We don’t want to be parading as if we are more righteous than they are. We are righteous because we have the righteousness of Christ and any righteousness to come out in the things we do is a result of having been transformed within. We are lights in the world.

We live in a city of darkness. Not because it is worse than other cities in the world. It may be better than many cities in the world but it is a city in darkness spiritually and it is believers and believing churches that are lights in the city and they give off the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15. “That God using us as we give off the knowledge of Christ which is a pleasing fragrance to God in every place. But we are a savor of life to life and death to death.” We bring life giving knowledge to those who respond in faith and enter into the life God provides but we confirm people in their lost-ness when they reject the Light.

So come back to Revelation. This picture of a lampstand and we’ll say more about it in a moment goes back to the Old Testament tabernacle and connects there and the ministry going on. We’ll say something about that in a moment. Revelation 1:12; “I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. Having turned I saw seven golden lampstands (v.13.) and in the middle of the lampstands.” See where He is; He is there in the position to evaluate every individual church specifically. He is not there to judge the churches of Asia; He is there to judge these seven churches individually. They are each one accountable to Him and He will render judgment. We easily lose sight of this.

Ephesians tells us God has given Christ as “head over all things to the church.” (Ephesians 1:22b) This individual church is directly accountable to Jesus Christ. We individual believers are directly accountable and we make up the church. He is standing in the middle of the churches. He is there for a purpose. “He is the Son of Man and He is clothed with a robe reaching down to the feet, girded about His chest with a golden girdle or a sash.” (Revelation 1:13) There is a picture here of His priestly authority, the focal point in the coming messages is going to be on judgment and evaluation.

He is the Son of Man. Let’s pick up with that, Son of Man, Jesus’ favorite title for Himself during His earthly ministry. In the Gospels, Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man over eighty times, by far His favorite way of identifying Himself. This goes back to Daniel chapter 7. This chapter will really get expanded out in the revelation that John is given through the Book of Revelation so what is compressed revelation here now we will get much of it filled in. Note verse 9 of Daniel 7. ”I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat;” This is a reference to God the Father. “His vesture was like white snow the hair of His head like pure wool.” Now keep these in mind because this is where we are going in the Book of Revelation in the description of Christ. The Ancient of Days is distinguished from the Son of Man because the Son of Man is going to come before the Ancient of Days, so we have God the Father here. “His throne was ablaze with flames its wheels were a burning fire. (v.9.) “A river of fire was coming out from before Him;” (v.10.) This is an awesome scene; this is not a comfortable cozy recliner kind of scene. You see we are in the presence of the living God you know; the Lord of the church is evaluating this. This is something He does in connection with the work of His Father.

We see in the Book of Revelation coming from the Father to the Son and on down to John so here we have judgment. We’ll see Christ described with His whiteness of hair, we’ll see the fire associated with Him and there are “Thousands upon thousands attending Him; myriads upon myriads standing before Him; note the court sat, the books were opened.” Reminds you of the Great White Throne at the end of Revelation 20. This is an awesome scene. I mean it’s like John I sees this multitude, how do I describe them? Thousands upon thousands, myriads upon myriads. I mean this is an awesome scene and it is a court scene men and women to be judged. This is serious business.


Then you come down to (Daniel 7:13). “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming.” There’s our foundation for that term, the Son of Man comes. “And He comes before the Ancient of Days, presented before Him. (v.14.) “To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all might serve Him.”

His kingdom won’t end and that’s where we’re going in the Book of Revelation. All that will not serve Him will be cast into the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone, forever and ever. Those who do serve Him will enter into a kingdom that has no end and that’s where we are going with the Book of Revelation.

The Son of Man. It is important to see here we’re in this context of judgment. Christ chose this as the name He used most often because… Well you think, He is the Son of God, isn’t that more important, wouldn’t that be more striking? They recognize He made claims to be God and the Son of God during His earthly ministry and what is revealed in Revelation 1 reveals He is more than just a man but you understand there is one Person who is both God and Man, Jesus Christ.

He took to Himself the fullness of humanity without ceasing to be the fullness of Deity so all “the fullness of Deity dwells in Him in bodily form” we’re told in (Colossians 2:9.) Don’t make any distinction; there are three different persons that comprise the one God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. We’ll see all three of them represented as we move through the Book of Revelation but there are not three different Gods. We say, “boy I don’t know if I understand this?” How can I understand God? I believe what He has revealed but not because I understand it all. I mean, what kind of God would He be if I could encompass Him with this finite mind? I can’t even understand a computer; I had to go get someone to help me with my email this week or I could get my grandkids to do it. How am I going to grasp God?

Just take courage. You are going to be living for a hundred trillion endless years and you know what? You still won’t have fully comprehended Him because He’s infinite. We will be finite forever and ever and ever and ever. Now I’m not saying we won’t know a lot more about Him than we know now but we will never exhaust our knowledge of Him. Amazing, but we’re here; He’s the Son of Man and this is drawn from a prophetic passage in Daniel which has judgment in view. The court sat, the books are opened, and people will be judged out of what was written in the books.

Come back to Revelation 1:13 and you pick up, “He’s the Son of Man, He’s clothed with a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with golden sash.” Now this is a picture drawn from the high priest in the Old Testament. We don’t have time to look at all the references but we’ll pick up some of them as we move along, with some of them you can check cross references since there’s hundreds of them through the Book of Revelations. If we keep going back through the Old Testament, we will be going slower than we are but in Exodus 28:4, Zechariah 3:4 you have a similar description of the high priest’s garments. It’s a picture of priestly power and authority but the emphasis in the Book of Revelation primarily won’t be on His priestly ministry it will be on His judging ministry but that’s based on His priestly ministry. We had that at the end of (Revelation 1:5). “To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—and made us to be a kingdom of priests to His God and Father--.”

So now, He’s the One whose priestly work has been foundational, now He exercises His judging work and so as the authority is His as High priest, as Judge, as King of kings and Lord of lords as it will be; what is He doing? Well He is clothed in this robe reaching to the feet, that sash is girded about the chest. They used that to bind up those long robes and tuck them under that belt, if you will, that girded their chest so they could move about. The picture here is that long robe with that golden sash or belt or girdle around the chest reveals something of the awesomeness of this One; that voice like a trumpet and the awesome presence.

What was the high priest’s duty? Come back to Leviticus 24. We are not going to get much further than this. I’m trying to spread out the study of Revelation so the Lord can come before we’re done but we’ll go to Leviticus 24:1-4. “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. Outside the veil of testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it will be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.” This would be reproduced in the temple that Solomon would build as well; we’re in the tabernacle here. This is the menorah as it’s known, that seven-branch candlestick and they had to have it continually replenished with oil and then the wick had to be tended to because it burned down and so on. So the high priest’s job was to see that this lampstand kept burning brightly all the time.

Now what we have with the churches are those seven individual lamps and here is Christ in His priestly authority as now judge of His people. What’s He doing? He is in the middle of those lampstands. What is His responsibility? To see that they keep burning brightly all the time and that’s what His evaluation will do. There are adjustments that need to be made; there are things that need to be stopped, there are things that need to be started. There are things for which I commend you; there are things for which I rebuke you. This is not a game, this is not a matter of we think we are doing perfectly well.

We’ll find as we go through the churches that He doesn’t ask each church. Give Me an evaluation of how you think you are doing. We can skip that; I’ll tell you how you are doing and I’ll tell you what you’d better change and I’ll tell you things aren’t going to go well for you if you don’t make the change but I want to commend you. You are doing some things that please me very much. I am just disappointed you’re not doing more things that please Me very much. I am displeased that you would do things that are not pleasing to Me. So He is doing this work with the lampstands and you can see how you draw out of the Old Testament and appreciate He’s caring for the light of each church. It has to burn brightly.

Where He is going to go next is the description. He’s going to have white hair and it’s just like the Ancient of Days because He’s God. He’s not only Son of Man, He is God and here you see both coming out. John sees Him as the appearance of a man but with the glory of God being seen now. It was veiled in that flesh; there was just a glimpse of it at the Mount of Transfiguration when something of His glory as God shown through but now He’s still man. He will be man for eternity but He has always been God and the fullness of Deity dwells in Him. It’s not surprising that some of the same characteristics that are given of God the Father are also said to be true of God the Son because they share the same attributes. They are distinct persons but the Father, the Son together with the Spirit comprise the one true God. Awesome!

So we are “lights in the world giving off the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the light of the gospel. We are lights on a hill.” God’s intention is what? The city be exposed to the truth concerning the God who has made Himself known, to the God who has provided His salvation. This church has to be seen as a light and we individually as lights going out wherever we do. People come here, that’s why we turn to the word of God. This is God’s light. Sometimes it rebukes us, it corrects us and that could be severe but it encourages us, it strengthens us.

But you can be sure if you haven’t been loosed from your sins by His blood, if you haven’t recognized your sin and guilt, turned from your sin, and placed your faith in Christ, He is an awesome judge to be feared. He says without any reservation, He will send you to an eternal hell, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever. That’s how serious it is, that’s why it was so important for His Son to come to this earth, to die on the cross so we could be loosed from our sins, become the object of His unending love. Why would we not place our faith in Him? Why would we who have placed our faith in Him, not faithfully serve Him? Is there any excuse for our light not to be burning brightly? Our testimony in our actions and in our words being perfectly consistent with what God says He expects to see in His church and in His people.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your word. How awesome it is that You, the one eternal God, existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; You have revealed yourself to us Your creation overwhelmed in our sin, living in darkness. In mercy and grace You provided a Savior in the person of Your Son who took to Himself humanity, died on the cross, was raised in victory so that all who believe in Him can receive the free gift of eternal life. May our testimony as a local church be strong and clear both corporately and individually, we pray in Christ’s name? Amen
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