Coronation: The Voice and the Vision

Transcript

JRNT 502
02/16/2025
Coronation: The Voice and the Vision
Revelation 1:9-20
Jesse Randolph



Well, we are returning to our study of the book of Revelation this evening. Over the past two Sunday nights we've been in Revelation 1:1-8 where we've worked through the prologue to the book of Revelation. We've worked through John's greeting, at least the preliminary greeting to the seven churches, and we've worked through this section of doxology, these words of worship and praise that John offers to the risen Lord which we looked at last Sunday night. And as we worked over these eight verses over these past two Sunday nights, we've gleaned several different statements of truth, several different truths that we can know about our Savior. We've seen that the Lord is the faithful witness, He is the firstborn of the dead, He's the ruler of the kings of the earth, He's the One who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, He's the One who's coming with the clouds, He's the alpha and the omega, He's the One who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Well, now in the section of Revelation 1 we'll be getting into this evening, and we'll actually go all the way to the end of the chapter (I told you we'd move faster in this series), we're going to get into this historical account which is told in vivid terms, in full-color detail of this encounter, this experience, that the Apostle John had with the ascended and exalted God/Man while John was exiled on the isle of Patmos. And what we have in our text for this evening, verses 9-20, is this snapshot of Jesus as He is today, as He exists today, the risen Lord in all His glory. It's this Jesus who instructed John to send these seven letters to these seven churches in Asia Minor. It's this Jesus who is upholding the universe right now by the word of His power. It's this Jesus who we will all stand before one day to give an account for how we stewarded all He's entrusted us with. And it's this Jesus, as we'll see, who is preeminent not only in the world, but in the church. And it's this Jesus who is, in the words of Colossians 1:18, what Paul says there, “first place in everything.”

Let's get right into our text starting in Revelation 1:9 which starts with these words, “I, John, your brother.” We'll stop right there. It's worth noting as we've looked at the past two weeks that this is John the apostle speaking as he addresses these seven churches. And John, we know, was this direct disciple and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a member of Jesus' inner circle along with Peter and James. He's the one who, John 13:23 says, “Jesus loved.” Now at this point, John would have been well into his 90s, the last surviving apostle, highly respected in the early church. And with those credentials in view look how John refers to himself. He simply refers to himself, verse 9, as “your brother,” your brother in the Lord; John, saved by the grace of Jesus Christ; John, saved by His blood, washed by His blood just like you. Sincerely, John. What a great demonstration of humility. And brothers and sisters, lest we ever think that we are something, or lest we ever think that we've arrived, think of the example of humility that John sets before us here. John had reason to boast based on how close he was to the Lord. And I mean, just like Paul over in Philippians 3 who had reason to boast, but recall Paul says, after giving his long list of ministry credentials, he says in Philippians 3:8, “I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.” John had the same attitude. And then the challenge for every one of us this evening is to make sure we follow in their faithful steps in doing the same.

Well, next John says he's not only a brother to those who are in these seven churches to whom he's writing, he's also a fellow partaker with them. And those two words in our English Bibles, “fellow partaker,” are just one word in the Greek, “sunkoinonos.” And now you might hear a familiar Greek term in that, “koinonia,” which we see in places like Acts 2:42, and it carries that meaning of sharing or fellowship. Acts 2:42, “And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship,” koinonia, “to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.” Well, when you tack on that preposition “sun,” which means together, to the word “koinonia,” which means sharing or fellowshipping, what you get is this word here, a sharer together. That's the word that we see there in verse 9 where it says, “fellow partaker.” I'm glad they smoothed it out there to say fellow partaker. He is a fellow partaker with those he's writing to in these seven churches. This is a way for John to say we are in this together. He was a fellow partaker with those in those seven churches that he was writing. He was saying here, I share a spiritual heritage with you, I share a spiritual kinship with you. We are solid together in Christ.

And he mentions here these three things that he and those in those seven churches were fellow partakers in. First, he mentions the tribulation, verse 9, then the kingdom and then it says “the perseverance which is in Jesus.” Let's start with that word “tribulation.” It's a fun word to say, “thlipsis” in Greek, and it literally means pressure. By using this word here, tribulation, John's not referring to the tribulation period that we'll see later in Revelation 6-19, that time of the Great Tribulation, the period of Jacob's trouble. No, John doesn't have in mind here, as he writes in verse 9, bowls and seals and trumpets. Rather in context, he's talking about the intense persecution that the other Christians of his day would be suffering on account of their faith. They were being persecuted. And as we're going to see later in this verse so was he, which was fulfillment of what Jesus said would happen in John16:33 where He says, “In the world you will have,” thlipsis, “tribulation.” So what Paul had in mind when he stood up before some early disciples after they were facing opposition in Lystra, in Derby, in Iconium in Acts 14, and he says, “Through many afflictions,” it's the same word there, “we must enter the kingdom of God.” It's also what Paul had in mind in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 when he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our” thlipsis, “affliction.” That's the same word that we see here in Revelation 1:9.

And then there's Paul, if you wouldn't mind turning over to Romans 5, who uses a similar, the same term actually, in Romans 5 in this great section on justification by faith. Look at Romans 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith.” he says, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also boast in our,” here's our word, “afflictions knowing that,” same word, “affliction brings about perseverance, and perseverance proven character, and proven character hope.” So Christians, in other words, while having the ultimate source of hope, while being the only people that can truly experience soul satisfying joy in this life, at the same time we have been appointed by God to experience trials, afflictions, and tribulations. 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul says, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Peter says in I Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you which comes among you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you.” That's a bit about the word “tribulation” in Revelation 1:9.

Back to our text, he next mentions, John does, the kingdom. “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom.” What does he mean by that word, “kingdom?” Well, that's a reference to just a few verses earlier in verse 6, where we saw last time John says that “Christ has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” And as I mentioned last Sunday night, that's borrowing from Exodus 19:6 where God the Father said to the Israelites at Sinai, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” So John here is borrowing from Exodus 19 in a similar way that Peter does in 1 Peter 2:9 where Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.” So in context here that word “kingdom” in Revelation 1:9 is referring primarily to the fact that as followers of Christ, we have a privileged status as the people of God. And having been made a kingdom, we are now imminently privileged to be a part of the people of God now. That, by the way, is how Paul uses the term over in Colossians 1:13, where he says that “God has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” But it also is highlighting, John here is, our status as citizens of a kingdom that is yet to come, a kingdom that is yet to develop into full fruition, but one day will. That will happen one day in the future when our Lord returns to earth after the rapture, after the tribulation, and when He establishes His literal physical earthly thousand-year reign on this planet. And as citizens of that kingdom, we are going to have the privilege of ruling with Him.

Still in verse 9 here, John next says he's this “fellow partaker in the tribulation and the kingdom,” and next he says, “the perseverance which is in Jesus.” And that beautifully constructed phrase refers to the perseverance, the steadfastness, which all believers are called to demonstrate in the midst of persecution they may face. The follower of Christ is a fellow partaker in that. And they're to have this doggedness, this resolve that compels them to persevere in their faith. They don't flag, they don't faint or fade. Instead, they persevere. They follow the example of our Lord “who,” it says in Hebrews 12:2, “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”

So when we put these three concepts together, tribulation, kingdom, perseverance which are in Jesus, we see that what John is doing is he's telling these seven early churches -- that since the present day is this period of suffering and tribulation, and since as citizens of a future earthly kingdom reign of Christ we have all these exciting future events and this eternal inheritance to look forward to -- followers of Christ must today demonstrate that type of patient endurance that our Lord perfectly modeled for us.

Well, next we're given some of the historical setting behind John's writing. Look at the second half of verse 9. He says, that I “was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the witness of Jesus.” Patmos is this small crescent-shaped island off the coast of Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, sitting in the middle of the Aegean Sea. It's 10 miles long, it's 6 miles wide. It's this barren, rocky, nondescript little island. And John was on this island, he says, “because of the word of God and the witness of Jesus.” He wasn't there on vacation, he wasn't there to run a VBS for a week for the kids of Patmos. No, he wasn't there voluntarily at all. He had been banished to Patmos, he'd been taken against his will, he'd been exiled there as a criminal. And why? What was his crime?

Well, his crime, it says, was his preaching of the Word of God and testifying to Jesus and His saving work. See, in those days in the Roman Empire that was criminal behavior. We'll get into this more as we get into more of these letters in Revelation 2 and 3, but this was deemed high treason under Roman law. You were to give your loyalty to the Caesar. Well, Patmos was not one of these country club prisons either. Those who were exiled to Patmos were chained and starved and scourged, they worked under the lash of a military overseer. There's an early commentator I read earlier this week who mentioned that John would have been condemned to the quarries in Patmos, where he labored day after day. Picture that, a man in his 90s laboring in the quarries on this windswept island. He could credibly talk about and speak to here “perseverance found in Jesus.” So here's John, he's in his 90s, he's weathered and worn, he's nearing the end of his earthly journey. He's living under these brutal conditions on this brutal or this bleak and barren island, and now he's about to receive the most extensive vision and revelation of the future that has ever been given.

Let's continue on by looking at verse 10, he says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.” So while his feet were physically planted on the rocky terrain of Patmos on this particular day, the Lord's day, which I take by the way to be the first day of the week, Sunday, he says he was “in the Spirit.” The Spirit of God, of course, had already permanently indwelt him and sealed him and was filling him as the Spirit does for all believers. But on this particular day John was under the dominant control of the Holy Spirit. On this specific Sunday, this Lord's Day, he was carried beyond any sort of normal human sensory experience and into the state where God revealed to him supernaturally the contents of the book that we now know as the book of Revelation.

And look how this scene unfolds here in verse 10. He says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” Now he didn't hear an actual trumpet, that's not what he's saying. He wasn't in awe of a brass instrument. No, it's a simile. He's saying, I heard “a loud voice like a trumpet.” And the voice that he heard was that of Jesus Christ. And note, that voice he heard, that voice from the Lord, it wasn't given in a faint whisper. The Lord didn't speak to him in some sort of indiscernible mumble. No, what John heard was a loud voice it says, “loud voice like a trumpet.” If you've ever been within a few feet of a trumpet, you know what he's talking about. If you've ever been near a Fourth of July parade and the person playing the trumpet walks by you and blasts in your direction, you know what he's talking about. If you've been near the student section at a fall football game, you know what he's talking about.

Trumpets are loud, trumpet blasts are loud. They're sharp and piercing. They immediately command your attention. You don't simply ignore a trumpet blast when it's right behind you. Rather, when we hear a trumpet blast, we listen up. It catches us off guard if we're not ready for it. It causes our heart to skip a beat if we're not ready for it. It causes us to jump out of our shoes if we're not ready for it. That's what's happening here. This loud, piercing, trumpet-like voice with which Christ was speaking was signaling to John that he needed to listen up. He needed to listen to whatever the risen Lord was about to share with him.

Verse 11, we see now what the Lord told him. He says, these are the words of Christ now to John, “Write in a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches.” Now that command there is a command, it's a command to write. It's an imperative verb, meaning Jesus is saying here, make sure, John, you take this down. And he was to do with what he heard from the Lord by putting it in a scroll, write in a scroll. That's a good translation by the way, because they didn't have bound books at this point, the way that we think of bound books with, you know, stitching and glue and all the rest. These were when you read something it was read in a scroll form that was written on papyrus or parchment. So it's write in the scroll, and the substance of what was to be in that scroll was what you see, “Write in a scroll what you see,” meaning all that was about to be revealed to John by Christ, all that the glorified Jesus was about to show him.

And then keeping our finger in verse 11 here, it says, “and send it,” meaning the completed scroll of the entirety of what was about to be revealed to him, “to the seven churches.” Write in the scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches. Did you catch that? Not to the seven cities, not to the seven regions, not to the seven diocese, not to the seven districts, but to the seven churches. And that's a very important detail for us to pick up on. What Jesus says to John here, what He was communicating to John here, and what Jesus has to say to us today at this very hour in our day is not about fixing the government and it's not about fixing the culture and it's not about making the world a better place and it's not about converting blue states to being red states and it's not about becoming a Christian nation. No, what Jesus addressed John here about in Revelation and what Jesus has to say to the church today as we read through and work through Revelation, He has to say to the church. His concern is with His church.

And note here that he doesn't leave it to John, as we keep reading on, which seven churches He's referring to. He lists them, verse 11, “Write in the scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” And these seven churches, they sat on this great circular road in western Asia Minor. And in fact, these cities, as you do the research and dig in a little bit, you see that they were located on a recognized postal route. And these seven cities were the hubs of these seven postal districts on that route in western Asia Minor. And not only that, this is fascinating, at least to me, these churches are listed in the very order that a postal worker at the time would have delivered the mail. He would have gone in this very order that they're listed here in verse 11. He would have gone from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum to Thyatira to Sardis to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. And these cities weren't selected randomly either. Rather, as we covered last Sunday night, these cities were selected by Christ because they represent the entire range of spiritual conditions and circumstances that can be found in the church not only 2000 years ago, but today, meaning while these seven letters have this historical context, they were written to real churches in real places in the first century. They most definitely have lasting endurance and relevance to churches all over the world today, even ours. So John has these marching orders from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's been told by Christ to write what he sees or write what he's heard in a scroll, and then to send that scroll, that completed scroll, the entirety of what is now known as the book of Revelation to the seven churches.

Now note that up to this point in this account, John is “in the Spirit” as it says, but he hasn't seen anything visually. He's heard, but he hasn't seen, because up to this point that voice that's been speaking to him, the voice of Christ, is coming from behind him. That all changes in verse 12. Look what he says, “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.” It's a really odd expression to say, I “see the voice.” No one can see a voice. Voices by definition are heard, not seen. This is a figure of speech John is using, this is his way of expressing at this moment how he turned to see the One who spoke, the One who is speaking to him, the One who had verbally said the words that we've already encountered.

Reading on he says, “And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands.” Now don't think of those like connected candlesticks like you'd see in a menorah in the Jewish feast of Hanukkah. What he's describing are seven individual portable lampstands—think of individual lanterns that are set up all around a room, allowing it to be illuminated. And the lampstands that John saw in this vision had symbolic meaning. In other words, these weren't merely lampstands, rather each represented one of the seven churches that were on this mailing list for Jesus' letters to those seven churches. In fact, look at the very last words of Revelation 1:20 where we have sort of the clue and the key to the riddle given to us, where he says, Revelation 1:20, “the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” So there's no mystery there.

We're given direct interpretation of what's happening in our passage. So these churches are pictured as lampstands here in verse 12, because they're made up of people like you and me. When you think about who we are as Christians, as those who make up the church, we're called, as it says in Philippians 2:15, to be lights that shine in the world. And we're called to shine as lights it says in that same passage, Philippians 2:15, “in the midst of [this] crooked and perverse generation.” Jesus said that we are to be “the light of the world,” in Matthew 5:14. So this lampstand reference makes total sense.

Now the churches here in Revelation 1:12 aren't just any lampstands though. No, they're golden lampstands. “And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.” And they're golden because just as gold was, even as it is today, considered one of the most precious minerals and materials on earth in John's day, the church in the Lord's eyes is exceedingly precious, so precious, in fact, that Paul says of Jesus that “He purchased it with His own blood” in Acts 20, in that departing address to the Ephesian elders. So John saw this vision of these golden lampstands, these representations of these seven churches there in Asia Minor, as they project the light of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ into that dark pocket of the world that they were living and functioning in.

And then look what comes next in verse 13, “And in the middle of the lampstands I saw One like the Son of Man.” As we're going to see as we work our way through this vision, there are several connection points back to the book of Daniel from our passage. In Daniel 7, I won't have you turn there yet (you're welcome to), the prophet Daniel has that vision of the Ancient of Days, that reference to God the Father. And then he also mentions the Son of Man, a reference to God the Son. And here we have in Revelation 1:13 John the Apostle describing his own encounter with One like a Son of Man. Both references are to the eternal Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. John first heard the voice of Christ, and now he's seeing Him. And note where, this is important, note where John sees the risen Lord. He sees Him in the midst, it says “in the middle of the lampstands,” meaning the Lord of the church is always in the midst of His church, He's always present in His church, He's always aware of what's happening in His church. That's a key lesson, a key takeaway from what we see here. That Jesus Christ, the preeminent One, the risen One, the ascended One, is always in the midst of His church. Even while He is ascended at the right hand of the Father in glory, even while He is immanent and present in the world in every corner of His creation, He is yet specially present and constantly present in His church.

That's why Paul could say in Colossians 1:17 that “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together,” that's speaking of the expanse of His sovereignty overall. But then in verse 18 he also says, “And He is the head of the body, the church.” So globally present, but then present in the church, locally present. And the takeaway for us is to remember as we think about Christ being the preeminent One and the head of the church, is that this is not your church, and it's not my church, it's not your parents' church, it's Christ's church. Jesus Christ is preeminent both in the world that He's made, and He's preeminent in the church He has bought. He is of central importance in His church, He's preeminent in His church. He gets, Colossians 1, “first place in His church.” So He's preeminent. And here's the thing, with our fallen minds, our frail, sin-cursed minds, we're not going to be able to see Christ this way, to see Him as He truly is unless we cultivate a clear and clearer picture of the state in which the Lord exists today as John saw Him here in His risen, ascended glory.

And that brings us to the second part of verse 13 where John starts to fill out this description of this vision he had of this One like a Son of Man. He begins by noting, verse 13, that the glorified Christ “was clothed,” it says, “in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across His chest with a golden sash.” Now that description of the Lord being clothed with that “robe reaching to his feet,” that brings to mind the visual image of the t priestly robe of Aaron, which Exodus 28:2 says, was designed for glory and for beauty. And His robe here is painting this picture of His priestly power and His priestly authority, like the priests of old whose charge was to keep the lamps lit in the old tabernacle. The idea here is that He is in the middle of His lampstands, the churches, ensuring that they remain burning brightly with His light. Still in verse 13, note that He's not only wearing this long robe as He appears before John, but there's this golden sash that's “girded across His chest.” And that sash speaks to His royalty, it speaks to His role as the soon arriving king, the One who will one day come back to set up His kingdom on earth where He will declare that He is King of kings and Lord of lords.

Not only did His garments as He appeared before John testify to His priestly role and to His coming kingship, they also, as we turn to verse 14, highlight the fact that He is spotless and sinless in every respect. Look at verse 14, “And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow.” Gordy and I had a lunch meeting this past Thursday where it was in one of those places where they intentionally keep the lights low. So we're in this lunch meeting for an hour or so, and we walk out of the restaurant and it's like we're blinded because it had snowed, you know, last week. And it took at least 15 seconds, I think, to squint our eyes intensely to be able to even make our way to the car. Because it had been so dark inside, and we get outside, and that light bouncing off the snow, it just took us out. Well, that pales in comparison what we experienced, that's nothing in comparison to the vision of Christ that John received at Patmos.

What he's describing here is this blazing, glowing, white light, far brighter, exponentially brighter, than the glare of any sun off any freshly fallen snow. I mentioned already, but John's language here is clearly drawing from Daniel 7. In fact, go ahead now and turn with me to the book of Daniel, Daniel 7. Daniel's writing several centuries before John, and he has this vision. And we're just going to jump right into the middle of his vision here in verse 9 of Daniel 7. He says, “I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days was seated, and His clothing was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool.” Now that reference to the Ancient of Days is a reference to God the Father, the first Person of the trinity. And what we're seeing here in John's vision is what Daniel saw about God the Father, the Ancient of Days, is equally true of the Son. So in every respect, the attributes of the Father are the attributes of the Son. Jesus is God. The pure white hair of the glorified Christ which John testifies to in his vision, is demonstrating His deity, His equality with God the Father mentioned in Daniel 7. But it also pictures His perfect moral purity. Christ's white hair here in verse 14, this is picturing His perfection, His holiness. Remember, Jesus is known as the Holy One of God, all of His ways are holy. He is holy in His person, He is holy in His essence, He's holy in His being. We know that in Him there is no sin at all.

He's not only holy in His essence though, we know that He has holy expectations, He has holy desires, holy demands for His church specifically. In fact, look with me at Ephesians 5, turn over to Ephesians 5. You might be thinking, are we doing a marriage conference here or preaching Revelation? But you'll see where we're going with this. Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.” Now I made the marriage conference joke, but I mean seriously, we come to this verse and these passages, and our minds typically go straight to the marriage relationship. And in a sense that is okay because this is a proper place to instruct and inform ourselves as to what our marriage relationships ought to look like as husbands and wives, and as we navigate and grapple with our respective roles as men and women, and husbands and wives.

But sometimes we read a passage like this and we lose sight of the even deeper theological truth that is being pointed to in these verses, which is that Jesus wants a holy bride, Jesus wants the church to be pure. He gave himself for the church that He might sanctify her, that He might cleanse her, that she might be without wrinkle or spot or blemish. He didn't give Himself for the church so that the church might be a certain size. He didn't give Himself for the church that the church might have a certain reach into the community. He didn't give Himself for the church so that we might have a certain number of ministry offerings and keep the doors open seven days a week. No, He gave Himself for the church so that we as a church would be holy. He wants, He demands, Ephesians 5, a holy church.

So in this vision John experienced, Christ is portrayed as deity, back to Revelation 1, He's portrayed as holy. Still in verse 14 we see Him portrayed as having this penetrating gaze. Look at the rest of verse 14. After saying that “His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow,” then it says, “and His eyes were like a flame of fire.” There's a parallel reference over in Daniel 10:5-6 where Daniel has this vision of what he calls a certain man “whose face had the appearance,” he says, “of lightning”. And Daniel then goes on to say that “His eyes were like flaming torches.” Here in Revelation 1:14, where John is reporting that Christ's “eyes are like a flame of fire,” what he's portraying and communicating is that there are these flashing searchlights that are projecting out of the eyes of our Lord.

And what he's also implying is that through those flaming torches within our Lord's eyes, through that penetrating gaze, all things are uncovered and laid bare. It's the very idea picked up in Hebrews 4:13 that there is “no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give.” So the timeless truth to glean here is that Jesus knows our thoughts and Jesus knows our secret affections and Jesus knows our lusts and Jesus knows our pride and Jesus knows our motivations and He knows our intention. He knows it all. In fact, skim with me if you would, through Revelation 2 and 3. I mean, we won't do this all, but look after the introductory words to each of these seven churches, look what comes, look what He says, what Jesus says, to each of them. Revelation 2:2 to the church at Ephesus, “I know your deeds.” Revelation 2:9 to the church at Smyrna, “I know your tribulation.” Revelation 2:13 to the church at Pergamum,”I know where you dwell.” Revelation 2:19 to the church at Thyatira, “I know your deeds.” Revelation 3:1 to the church at Sardis, “I know your deeds.” Revelation 3:8 to the church at Philadelphia, “I know your deeds.” Revelation 3:15, church at Laodicea, “I know your deeds.” In other words, what is happening in His churches is not a matter of guesswork for the Lord. Like any attentive husband, He knows His bride. And through His glorified eyes, those eyes, verse 14, “which are like a flame of fire,” the Lord is searching for something in His church. He's continually scanning His churches looking for something, and that's what? Holiness. Jesus wants a holy bride. He is scanning His churches for holiness. He is looking for holy churches led by holy shepherds composed of holy members who stand on holy doctrine as revealed in the holy Scriptures, individuals who think holy thoughts and who demonstrate toward one another holy love.

Here's the thing though, the church is not just a place. The church isn't a building, the church isn't chairs, the church isn't carpet. The church is people. And a church will not grow in holiness if its people aren't growing in holiness. So the question we all have to consider this evening is, are we, are you, growing in holiness? Are you pursuing holiness, intentionally pursuing holiness, putting off sin, putting on righteous behavior by the power of the Spirit who lives in you? Note what I'm not asking, I'm not asking how long have you attended Indian Hills. I'm not asking are you in a home Bible study. I'm not asking if you go to an adult Sunday school during the first hour. I'm asking the question, are you growing in holiness? Are you pursuing holiness? Are you putting sin to death? Are you feeling a sense of conviction when you do sin? And what did we learn this morning? We all do. Are you, Psalm 32, confessing your sin to God and seeking forgiveness from Him when you do sin? Are you intentionally cutting off those sources of temptation to sin? Are you replacing those old sinful habits with new godly ones? Are you allowing other Christians to come around you and offer accountability and encouragement and support? There's a one to one correlation between the holiness of the church and the holiness of its people. They are one and the same. And Indian Hills will only be a church that is pleasing to Christ if its people, all of us, myself included, all of you, everybody who is here in the first hour, are pursuing holiness individually. That's the application from a text like this.

So John has given this vivid application, vivid description of both the hair and the eyes of the glorified Christ. Now he gets into a description of His feet. Look at verse 15, He says, “His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace.” Now the words “burnished bronze” there, that refers to bronze that's been taken out of a heated furnace. It's still molten, it's still glowing, it still has that reddish hue. And bronze, by the way, in the Old Testament was symbolic of divine judgment against sin. So what's being pictured here is Christ with these red hot feet, not just in the midst of His church and demonstrating His preeminence over His church, but actually moving through His church and imparting divine righteous judgment as He comes across sin in His church. Now we know that Christ is going to one day use those same feet to trample the enemies of God, those outside the church. That's mentioned in Isaiah 63:1-6, what He will do with those feet. But that's not what's being described here in Revelation 1.

Instead, what we see here is Christ's righteous judgment within His church toward all that is not holy, against all those sins which are blemishing His bride. Make no mistake about it, the Lord Jesus sits in judgment over His churches, not in the sense of casting us into hell for sins we commit. No, we're in the church, we are His bride. But we do know from passages like 1 Corinthians 3, that even for Christians the things we do will be tested on the last day by Christ through fire. For pastors and teachers that means our preaching and our teaching, our doctrine, our shepherding. For husbands that means the way we loved and led our wives and how we trained and instructed our children. For you wives this means how you submitted to your husbands and how you managed and prioritized your home. For children this includes how you obeyed your parents when you were younger, and how you honored your parents when they were older. And for all of us this includes our hearts, our attitudes, our motivations. All of it will be tested and revealed to Christ by Christ on the last day.

His vision doesn't end there though, He continues. Next into verse 15 we learn that John heard a loud voice. It says, “and His voice was like the sound of many waters.” And I've read commentary after commentary that says this probably sounded something like Niagara Falls. I don't think John had ever been to Niagara Falls, so I don't think that's the reference. I think what is most likely is he's referencing, he's thinking about the sound of the endless pounding of the shores of Patmos as the waves from the Aegean Sea are crashing against the rocks there. That's the sound in his mind. And the point is that in His current glorified state Jesus is speaking with this powerful voice, this voice that drowns out all other voices, a voice that no one can ignore. So when Christ spoke to His church through John, John was attentive. John listened. And as Christ speaks to us in this generation in the way that He does through His Word, we're to do the same, we're to listen.

Next part of the vision appears in verse 16 where he says He had in His right hand seven stars, it says “having in His right hand seven stars.” What are those supposed to be referring to? Well, again we have the clue in verse 20. Jump down to verse 20 for our answer to what he's talking about here in verse 16. It says, “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” That word “angels,” “angeloi” in Greek, literally and simply means messenger. The idea here is that these are the messengers of the seven churches. And I don't take this to be referring to heavenly angels or heavenly messengers, I take this to be referring to human messengers. And who would be the primary human messengers in the church? Well, those who serve as Christ's under-shepherds in preaching and teaching His Word. In other words, I take this reference to stars to be pastors in these seven churches, elders in these seven churches. These pastors, elders, these messengers are referred to here as stars, not in the sense that we think of that term, like people of acclaim, Hollywood-type people, but instead as serving these lampstands. And their main function as these stars is to spread the light of gospel truth as they minister the Word of God to these churches. And then note what Christ is doing with these seven stars in verse 20. These seven messengers, these seven pastors, elders, He's “holding them,” it says, “in His right hand.” That signifies a place of security, special protection, meaning those who are responsible for the spiritual welfare of Christ's churches are themselves upheld by the Son of Man. He supports them, He strengthens them as they seek to faithfully proclaim His Word. They're not on their own, He's upholding them.

Back to verse 16. After saying and having in His right hand seven stars, we see that cross reference again in verse 20, then it says, “and a sharp two-edged sword which comes out of His mouth.” Now the type of sword that's being referred to there is a large two-edged broad sword. In Revelation 19:15 that same word is used to describe the sort of judgment that Jesus will one day wield against the nations, the world outside the church, while here in verse 16 that sword is speaking of judgment against enemies from within the church. What this part of the vision is communicating to us is that those who attack Christ's church, those who sow lies and discord within His church, those who otherwise would seek to do harm to the flock in His church, they will be dealt with personally and judicially and harshly by the Lord of the church. Again, Jesus loves His church, so much so He desires her purity, her holiness, her spiritual health. And so when sin is exposed in His church, He is willing to wield his sharp two-edged sword and remove it.

The last aspect of his vision, John's vision of the glorified Christ, as we see here at the end of verse 16, is His shining face. Look what John says there, “and His face was like the sun shining in its power.” John looked into the face of the risen, glorified Savior, and it was like staring into the noonday sun. He was blinded. John had experienced, remember, a similar vision, albeit for just a moment, some 65 years earlier at the Mount of Transfiguration. Remember how Christ was described there in Matthew 17:2, “His face,” it says, “shone like the sun.” And of course, more sporadic rays of glory would pop through whenever Jesus would perform one of His earthly miracles during His earthly ministry, like when He stilled the storm or when He raised Lazarus or when He turned water into wine. But even then His glory was veiled in those incidents. Not any longer, not as He exists today, not as John encountered Jesus there on Patmos. Rather, the divine perfections of God Himself were shining through fully Christ's face. And John saw it, John beheld it.

And then note carefully here, verse 17, the effect this had on John. John didn't just casually stroll up to Christ and say, “That's pretty cool that Your face is shining.” No, look at verse 17, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.” We have to put this in the context of the various ways John encountered Christ, both early on when he was one of the sons of thunder and later. John experienced some of the most intimate fellowship with Jesus during our Lord's earthly ministry. He laid his head in the bosom of the Savior, he was known as the apostle whom Jesus loved, he had this very intimate association with the Lord. But now as he's encountering the risen Christ, the glorified Christ, the Son of God in glory, he's down for the count. He collapses. He's completely overwhelmed. He's totally undone. He is crumpling under the weight of the majestic glory of Jesus Christ.

That would be a proper response for someone who has just witnessed the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And I just have to bring this up. That brings up a pertinent question for us today. I mean, knowing who Christ is, having the full canon of His revelation, having all 66 books of the Bible, knowing how He exists as it's recorded here in His glorified state, His glorified position today, would you say that you're worshiping Him with reverence -- whether it's through your communion with Him in the Word and in prayer, through your praising of Him through songs and hymns and spiritual songs, through the intentionality with which you fellowship with His people, others who have been bought with His blood, through your service of Him in the church or in your family, through your sharing of the gospel with those who need to be reconciled to Him? It's a convicting thought, is it not, to think about how majestic and glorious our Lord is? He's always been majestic and glorious, He just happened to take on humanity, unveil some of it in His incarnation. But to think about how majestic and glorious He is in His state today and how feeble we are in our efforts to serve Him today, it's convicting.

But with that conviction lingering, look what comes next, because I'm sure John felt some conviction and some sense of being undone here. Look at the end of verse 17, it says, “and He placed His right hand on me saying, ‘Do not fear.’” So Jesus placed His right hand on John and presumably with that same loud voice, the voice that sounded like the trumpet, the voice that sounded like the sound of many waters, He says to him, “Do not fear.” John probably thinks he's done at this point, John probably thinks he is toast, that it's over for him. And Jesus says, “Do not fear,” do not be afraid. This was an act of great compassion from Jesus toward this disciple whom He loved. This touch of the hand was designed to bring John comfort and assurance. And then as He laid His right hand on John, the glorified Christ said this, still in verse 17, “I am” “ego eimi,” “the first and the last,” which means I am the alpha and the omega, which supports where we ended last Sunday night, where we concluded verse 8, that the “I am the Alpha and Omega” reference is a reference to Jesus the Son of God.

And then verse 18, He continues on by saying, “and the living One.” So it's “do not fear, I am the first and the last, and the living One.” That reference to the living One is a clear statement about His resurrection from the dead. And then He says, “and I was dead.” Literally, that says in the Greek, ‘I became dead.’ The living One became dead, the living One, the self-existent God who could never die, became man and died. And He did it all according to His own plans and His own purposes and His own will. That lines up directly with what Jesus would say in John 10:17-18 where He says, “I lay down My life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it away from Me, but from Myself I lay it down.”

Well, after saying to John “I was dead,” Christ next says, verse 18, “and behold, I am alive forever and ever.” Those words would have meant something to John when Jesus said, “I am alive forever and ever.” John was there, he stood at the feet of Christ's cross. Many of the other disciples fled, but John was there. John went all the way to Calvary, John heard the words, “It is finished,” John saw Jesus die. So those words “I am alive forever and ever” must have had a special potency when John heard them. But that's not all.

Jesus then says, end of verse 18, “I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Now as the One who upholds the entire universe by the word of His power, we do know that Jesus is sovereign over all aspects of life. But what He's also saying to John here is that He is sovereign over death. No man, no woman, no child can pass away, can die without Jesus's divine permission. Jesus has appointed the days on which we were born, the date of birth, and He's also appointed the other day on our headstones, the day in which we will die. He's appointed all the circumstances under which we'll die, whether it be in an intersection, on an airplane, in a hospital bed, or in hospice care, in our living room one day. He's sovereign over it all, He has the keys. It means He has the authority, He has the control. And bring it back to John here, that would have been a great source of comfort. He is slaving away there in his 90s on Patmos, so now to hear that Jesus has said He has everything worked out—just as He had appointed that day that John would be born, He had appointed that day that John would die. And not only that, John had nothing to fear about his eternal state after death because Christ had already delivered him from death and of Hades. He has the keys of death and Hades.

So John's vision of Jesus, while rightly terrifying, ends up being incredibly comforting. And with that terror and that comfort, both in balance and both in view, John goes on to follow Christ's command in verse 19. He says, “Therefore, write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.” As I explained in our first message in this series, Jesus' words here in verse 19, I believe are really the outline of the entire book of Revelation. In Revelation 1 which we are now finishing, we have the things which you have seen. In Revelation 2 and 3, which we'll start next week, we have the things which are. And then Revelation 4-22, through the end of the book, we have the things which will take place after these things. And then his vision ends with this postscript, we've already referred to it a couple of times tonight, it's sort of the decoder key to other passages, verse 20. He says, “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

So what's our key takeaway for this evening as we get ready to move into Revelation 2 and Christ's letters to the seven churches? I think it's this, that as Christians we certainly do need to keep our eye in one sense on the past. We have to remember that Christ did come in His first coming in the humiliation of His incarnation. And He was that meek Messiah, He was that humble servant, He was that man from Galilee that's pictured in the four gospel accounts, including the Gospel of Luke that we are studying on Sunday mornings. But we also have to keep in our minds this picture that's been painted for us, not only here tonight, but as we'll study the rest of Revelation, of Christ as He exists today, the Christ that we worship today, the Christ who governs His church today, the Christ who demands holiness in His church today, the Christ we'll stand before one day. That's the picture we've been given this evening. And as we've seen this evening that Christ is preeminent and He is glorious, He's majestic, and He is worthy of all praise.

Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this chance to work through this incredible section of Scripture this evening, this vision that the Apostle John had of the glorified and ascended Christ while imprisoned on Patmos. And we see so many truths here about how our Savior, our Lord Jesus, how He exists and functions and is today. And I pray what this would do is really propel us forward into the study of Revelation, where we will have a high and exalted view of our Savior, a high and exalted view of our Lord as He exists today in glory. I pray that we would be able to hold those truths in balance, that our Lord did come in a humble state, in a humble condition, in the humiliation of His incarnation. But His presence today at Your right hand, the vision that John had of Him there at Patmos, that's who we would see right now if we could see Christ face to face. Right now we walk in faith, we read Your Word, we submit to it. We trust that Your Spirit is working in us, growing us, molding us into the image of our Savior, as we wait for that day where we will one day be with Him. God, we thank You for Your Son. We thank You for Your plan of salvation. We thank You for the Spirit which indwells and guides. We thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for our future hope. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.