The Glorified Christ Rev, 1:9-20
Revelation 1:9-20 · Vern Peterman · Oct 14, 2001
Revelation (2001-03), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262236533580

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We'll be turning this morning to Revelation 1, starting with verse 9. And as we go there, just to give us some orientation, we're looking at the last half of the first chapter of Revelation. There's 22 chapters, so we're just right at the front end here.

And as we went over a few weeks back, There is a syncopation between heaven and earth. Eight times it goes from earth to heaven, down to earth, back up to heaven, back down to earth. Eight times. This is the first syncopation. We'll be looking at a heavenly scene here as we go into this morning's verses. So this is just the first upstroke in a crescendo.

We'll be looking at the heavenly image and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And just to kind of give us some frame of reference, John is about to be transported from his earthly view, where though he is concerned about spiritual things, he has not yet begun to describe his views of the heavenly scene. He's being made to swing his video camera, so to speak, from earth up to heaven.

And as he does this, let's keep in mind that he's just beginning to describe for us the glorious, ascended Lord Jesus Christ, with whom we are now seated, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2.6. So fasten your seatbelts. You ready?

We're going to be looking deeper into John's divinely inspired prophetic masterpiece, Revelation 1.9. I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, which was on the island called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Notice here, John does not give himself any exalted title. But for the first time in John's five writings, he identifies himself in the text of the book.

Perhaps this is because John patterns his writing after that of the Jewish prophets. The Jewish prophets were compelled to identify who they were and to take personal responsibility for what they said. If we were to look at Deuteronomy 13 and 18, it would spell out the Old Testament law about the prophets, and basically they had absolute personal responsibility for what they said.

And what was the penalty for being false? Do you remember? Stoning, yes. You got lots of free rocks, okay? And so John just may be kind of following that pattern where he feels, I really need to identify myself here because I'm giving prophecy. Also, the other thing is that John's becoming well-recognized. He has been now with the seven churches, and even though he's been in exile, he had been with these churches in Asia for quite some time, and so, as we'll see in here, this is being explicitly written to them. It would be a matter of them recognizing John well and knowing, oh, it's John writing this. We know who he is. The other thing is that we get the distinct impression that John wants us to pay attention to what he's about to write. So he's putting his name on it.

He's saying, listen. Though he has all the rights to call himself an apostle, notice that here he calls himself a brother and fellow partaker. That is, a together sharer in three things. Tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance, which are in Jesus. And the way this is written in the original language is very compact. But I think there's a few things to keep in mind as he's saying this.

He is now an old man. Yet he is being forced to do hard labor at this mine on the island of Patmos, all because of his stand for what? The Word of God, and because he testified about Jesus Christ. In his sufferings, he rings out a theme that is common to all the other apostles.

Turn with me briefly, if you'd like, to Acts 14, 21 and 22. This is speaking about Paul and his companions, as they went to the town of Derby. In verse 21 in Acts 14 it says, After they had preached the gospel to that city, that is Derby, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Now you see in here the same three themes that John has just written about in kind of compact form. He talked about continuing in the faith. Isn't that the perseverance?

He talked about the kingdom and the context that Paul gives us here is through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom. So this kingdom is looking forward to the kingdom when we will reign with Christ. Believers will reign with Christ. What that means now is through many tribulations.

So, let's go back to this passage that John has written and just kind of summarize what that said. Once one becomes a believer in Christ, he must by the new nature have a heart and mind to share with others in the faith the tribulations and suffering that come along with being a believer in Christ. continuing in the faith, that is, that's the perseverance and patience, as we anticipate our future participation in the kingdom of Christ Jesus when he comes again.

That's what John is conveying in those compact terms there. And incidentally, John, when he's saying tribulation, is not referring to the tribulation, he's referring to the troubles and struggles that Christians will go through. Because remember, he's a fellow partaker, and believers aren't going through the tribulation. At least not those of the church age.

Now, the next thing, he tells us he is on the Isle of Patmos. And I want to give another view from one of them that we had earlier. This is an aerial view of the Isle of Patmos looking northward. And though we don't have biblical information, tradition has it that he was situated about right here. on this island, and there's a cave there that has been traditionally considered to be where he was at the time.

He attributes his tribulations in the mine at Patmos to his adherence to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Now, the Word of God he's referring to here is the written Word of God that you have in your hands, or at least I hope you have in your hands. And the testimony of Jesus, Jesus is the living word of God, right? So he took a stand on the word and he testified about Jesus Christ. And that's what he's paying the price for. And this is identical, by the way, to what we saw in verse 2. Now, in verse 10, let's take a look there.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches. Or maybe I should up the volume there. Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Let's kind of take it phrase by phrase here.

I was, being John, in the Spirit. This indicates that this is the Holy Spirit's mode of revelation. Paul uses this similarly in Ephesians 3.5, where he talks about having a revelation in the Spirit. This is the mode of revelation for particular people who are appointed by God to receive direct revelations. So that's his phrase, in the Spirit. The structure of the Greek phrase here is such that it literally means, I became in Spirit.

The next phrase there is, on the Lord's day. Now that might seem simple to you, but in fact commentators are about split half and half as to what that means. Some of them have said, well this means Sunday, the first day of the week. Others have said it means the day of the Lord, that is this future coming tribulation time and all those things that are yet to happen.

But the way that John wrote this doesn't fit either one. How about that? John, twice in his Gospel, wrote Sunday as being the first day of the week, as did a few other New Testament authors. And then, the Day of the Lord, every place else that shows up in the New Testament isn't written this way either.

This is the only place that it's written this way. And so at first you say, well, what's going on? Kind of a head-scratcher. I'm convinced it means just the Lord's Day, meaning Sunday, and here's why. Turns out that the way John wrote this is identical to the way a lot of the people who we know were his disciples, because we have their writings, they wrote it the exact same way, and they meant Sunday. These men were known to have been his disciples, and they also lived among the seven churches. So we know that John, in using this term, would have used something that his direct disciples would have understood, and that it was used right in those very same churches he was writing to. So for that reason, I take this as just the Lord's Day as we've come to say it, Sunday. And that's the way he was expressing it, in a way that the people that he was writing to would clearly understand. So John is telling us that it's simply Sunday. in his own way of expressing it.

Now, and then he says, and I heard behind me, and this is really, this is our first introduction into the heavenly scene, a sound, okay? I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, he expresses it. This, by the way, is the first of 24 times he's going to tell us in Revelation, 24 times he's going to say, I heard And I think there's a reason why he uses this particular phrase. He is reinforcing with us the idea that this is eyewitness testimony. This really happened. This wasn't something I just cooked up, is what he's telling us. It's just like the over 70 times that he comes up and says, I saw. is next communicating there, he says, loud voice, and that phrase, loud voice, is not something that he just cooked up either. This is an Old Testament term. And here's one place where the phrase loud voice comes up.

Here's Deuteronomy 5.22, and who's speaking? It's the Lord speaking, isn't he?

Now, here's another one, Ezekiel 9.1, and who's speaking again? It's God speaking.

And we have a third one here, Daniel 4.14, where an angel calls out in a loud voice. And what we find as we go through Revelation, these 19 times that the phrase loud voice shows up, those 19 times it always comes from heaven. It is either God speaking or it's an angel speaking. And it's always the case, never anything else.

Just like you saw in these Old Testament references. So, it's just another one of those patterns John is drawing heavily from the pictures and the words and the imagery straight out of the Old Testament. He's not cooking up something brand new here. He's using terminology that, if we look in the Old Testament and become familiar with it, it's right there.

Now, something real interesting about this loud voice, it's just two Greek words, as you might expect. It's phonon megalin. Now you should go to sleep tonight just memorizing phonon megalon. No, never mind. Anyway, phonon megalon. Now the first one, phonon, sounds like phone, right? And it means voice. The next one, megalon, is translated loud, and we get our English prefix mega. And now here's another interesting thing. From these two Greek words, we get our term megaphone. When we want to have what?

A loud voice. Okay? So here's this message. He's saying, I heard this voice like it was coming through a megaphone, is essentially the message. It was loud. It was impressive and it got his attention. Just like a megaphone would be intended to do for us, right? It came through clearly. It was loud. It got my attention. And so he couldn't just stand there and let it be to its back. He had to see, what is this loud voice I'm hearing? With that, we get another interesting introduction. And this is something I think we better not skip over.

John uses the word translated like, and it's the first of over a hundred times that the word like or as is given in the book of Revelation. He compares it with things that we'll understand. It's like a trumpet. It's like the sun. It's like lightning and thunder. And so he makes these comparisons to things that we'll understand so that we'll get the picture. Now, what does he compare the loud voice to? He says it was like a trumpet. Now, we might just say, oh gee, I know what a trumpet is, and then just move on. Let's not do that. There's a reason why we better not overlook this. And that is trumpets were very important in the whole Old Testament law. And it's the priests who blew the trumpets. And there were three main events that they blew the trumpets for.

Before and during going into battle, the priests would have the responsibility for blowing the trumpet. We oftentimes think of priests being entirely in the temple, but that was one of the priests' responsibilities. When they would go with the Israelites, they were told, you must speak to the people who are going to fight. The priests had that responsibility, and then they said, blow the trumpets. And it was the priest's responsibility. In more recent times, it was people on the drums or blowing the bugle. But that was the priest's responsibility before they went into battle to announce a feast and at the beginning of each month.

The priests were to do this. So when John hears a trumpet, guess what? He's not just saying it sounds like a trumpet. He's saying, I heard a priestly sound. I heard a sound that said, This is a priest. Okay? You get the picture? Now, that's only one introduction. We're going to look into more of that.

Now, so when John compares the loud voice to a trumpet, the implication to him being a Jew and having grown up in Israel is that the loud voice is of priestly origin. At this point, I need to call your attention to something about Jewish symbolism, so that we'll all have a clear understanding of what John is telling about, because we're about to get a description that if we're not careful we're going to miss out on it and misunderstand what he's saying. Jewish symbolism is not done to create a description of something that when we put it all together looks outwardly good.

The Greeks had a different approach. They tended to make statues and things like that that looked good. And of course we've seen pictures of Greek statues and a lot of them have really good form and are very aesthetic. The Jews were not concerned when they put together symbols. When you put that together, how does that look? That did not bother them at all.

The Jews did the same thing with their poetry, like in Psalms. You might notice as you read through Psalms that it'll say one line and then the next line is almost like the same thing. Ever notice that? And if you see that pattern, it's because they're not rhyming sound, they're rhyming how it looks. You see the difference?

The Jews are not concerned about what the overall form looks like. They want to make sure that the symbols that they represent in each part are true, regardless of how it looks like when you put all the parts together. Get the idea? They want truth, not just how good does it look. And so that's their impression.

Let me give you an example, and it's kind of a humorous one, if you don't mind. The Song of Solomon. Many of you are familiar with the Song of Solomon, which has a lot of various descriptions of so-and-so looks like this or that. One of the things that it does here is it says, your nose is like the Tower of Lebanon. Nice, beautiful description to call a lady. Your neck is like a tower with a thousand shields all around it. Well, what does that look like? So if you take this description and put it together, see the hair is a bunch of goats?

At any rate, the Jews, when they used this word imagery, were not concerned with how does it look like when you put all the pieces together. They want to communicate truth in each individual part. So I think that's critical for you to understand as we go through the book of Revelation, and this is the first time we're going to hit it, And so it's extremely valuable for you to understand that difference because otherwise you're going to get lost and confused. So as we go into this, just kind of keep that in mind because the sum total of the picture is actually kind of bizarre until you understand that.

And by the way, this is so fascinating. I put one on the hallway or the lobby bulletin board if you want to look at it some more. But I thought it was just kind of good to get the point across. Now, having understood that, let's take a look here. And remember, this is Jewish symbolism, a lot of it drawn straight out of the Old Testament. Let's look at verse 12.

Then 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, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, and girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it had been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its strength."

Now if you put that picture together you have something roughly approximating that little artist depiction that you have on your handout. Let me put that up here just so that we have some semblance of what this is telling us. Now, this picture, it's an artist's depiction. Obviously it's going to fall short in some way. One way, for example, is that that sword is too short. The sword that he describes, and we'll talk about it a little more, is actually five feet long. The kind of sword that John says comes out of his mouth. Anyway, let's take a look and let's go piece by piece through this imagery that John is painting for us here.

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. So what happened is we see John's first introduction is to have his back to the Lord. Isn't that kind of amazing? Here's his first introduction and he's like, I'm suddenly in heaven and here I am and I've got my back to the Lord. So that's kind of phenomenal.

He speaks in abbreviated terms and he says that he turned to see the voice. Now you and I know he isn't going to see a voice, right? What he's saying is, I want to see the source of it. Where did that come from? Where did that voice start? So he's turning to see where it came from. So now he's turned to look.

And that takes us to the next phrase. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. It's interesting, that's kind of his first notice there. So we see these seven lampstands, and one of the things you note, they are golden. That communicates great value. It also tended to communicate in those days purity.

The lamp stands, as we'll see in verse 20, are the seven churches of Asia. So here's where I'm talking about Jewish imagery. The imagery is not designed so that when you put it all together, it looks nice. It's intended to convey a truth by its individual symbol. So we have the understanding later, as we'll see in a bit, that this is the seven churches of Asia. And we'll be taking a look at these seven churches in the weeks ahead, by the way.

In the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man. Now at first we might be a little puzzled until we discover a couple of things. One, this phrase son of man is used frequently in the New Testament to refer to Christ himself, isn't it? And the other thing is this phrase son of man comes straight out of the Old Testament, Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. And let me read that to you. In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man." Isn't that the phrase we just saw? Coming with the clouds, and that's a phrase that John quotes in Revelation 1-7. Coming with the clouds of heaven.

He approached the ancients of days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

So the phrase that John uses, one like a son of man, is one that the Jews clearly understood as being the Messiah. So when you hear the phrase, the son of man, the way to think of it is the son related to man. And the reason that fits is because Christ was and is the God-man. God born of flesh, born of women, almost 2,000 years ago. He is and ever will be fully God and fully man.

Now, the next part of verse 13 is fascinating. Let's take a look at it. He was clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash. What John has begun to describe for us is the clothing of a Jewish priest. Does that fit with the trumpets? In Exodus, chapters 28 and 39, you will find the exact same description of the Jewish priest.

They're to have a long robe, they're to have a sash. It's tied high in order to give them better mobility, ability to... Because the priests, remember the priests, they didn't sit down. They're constantly moving and sometimes having to handle heavy animals and other heavy things. So it was tied with a sash high in order to give the priest mobility.

So what's being described here is the Jewish priest. Now, so what we see here in this description, John is seeing the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenlies as our heavenly high priest. He has a voice with a trumpet telling us also that he is a priest as well. And like the indication of the trumpet, the clothing is describing telling us that the ascended, glorified Christ is our high priest in the heavenly. That's the message that John is conveying to us with these symbols.

Let me read to you from Hebrews 7, 23 through 27. The author of Hebrews puts it this way. The former priests, that is the ones we've been hearing about in the Old Testament, on the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing. But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because he did once for all when he offered up himself.

Can you imagine John being so deeply, deeply concerned for the well-being of these churches in Asia where he'd been ministering, and knowing that he couldn't personally go to them? He was stuck on this island of Patmos at the order of the emperor. Here he is and now John sees Christ in the heavenlies. That must have been incredible. And he sees Christ apparently occupied with nothing but these churches that are bearing so heavy on his heart.

Isn't that neat? It's neat. Often times we might think, oh heavens, here I am, I've got this horrible thing going on in my life. I have this wretched tragedy or I have this constant agony and I feel sometimes like I'm just going it alone. And here the Lord has these seven churches before Him, and John sees, you know, these seven churches, and let me tell you, those must have been weighing heavily on his heart. John sees the heavenly high priest, and what does he see? Here's the heavenly high priest holding these churches here right in his close attention. That must have gripped John.

Can't you imagine that? To have seen it. What relief for him to understand the Lord is caring deeply, deeply about these churches. which have such great concern to your heart. Now, this should match your handout here, and I'd like us to go through it. This is a seven-fold description of Christ. Here's the number seven again, right? The sevenfold description comes like this.

The head and hair were like wool or snow. To the Jews, this clearly meant the wisdom of age. And in the Proverbs, for example, it says that gray hair is the glory of a man. Well, if gray is glorious, being white must be even better, right? It's the glory, it's the splendor. So he's conveying with something that they would already understand. This is to represent the glory of Christ. Here's his hair, it's white like wool or snow.

Let me read for you Daniel 7.9 as it's referenced here. I kept looking until thrones were set up, Daniel writes, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His vesture was like white snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. This is the picture that John's drawing from. So we see a few things.

One, it's not in question what this white means. This having to do with purity, this having to do with glory. The purity is also represented in other passages there, including the Isaiah 118 passage. So this first symbol that we see, the head and the hair, it's clear from scripture what this talks about.

Let's take a look at the next one. It says the eyes are like what? Flames of fire. And this sort of yellow around the eyes that you see in the picture is intended to convey that. It talks about penetrating judgment. And there are a few different passages there that deal with that. The next thing, he talks about the feet.

His feet were like the bronze of a furnace. And he talks about them still glowing as if they were in the furnace. And if you've ever seen molten metal, I mean, it is really bright. It is, at times when it's fully heated, overwhelmingly bright. And this is exactly the description we see out of the Old Testament in Exodus as referenced there.

It also communicates something else. Brass or bronze items are just really heavy. Have you ever seen or gotten next to something that's just solid brass or bronze? It's unmovable. And I think that's one of the other things intended to be conveyed here. You'll see brass and bronze used in the Old Testament elsewhere as a description of something that just Boy, you hit it and it is solid.

It's not going anywhere. And what this is telling us, the Lord doesn't change. Once He's determined something, this is what's going to happen. And that's one reason I think why the phrase that you see showing up as we've already seen, and you'll see it show up again a few times, things which must take place. It's Christ with the bronze feet, the one who's immovable in His position. That's the one who said, these are going to happen. It's not a guess. It's not the best that God can tell. These things are fixed. Christ is immovable.

Let's take a look at the next one, the voice. We talked about that a little bit. He describes the voice as many rushing waters. How many of you have had the chance to be next to a large waterfall or a roaring river? You know what I'm talking about? It is overwhelming. At times you get next to these places where the water is roaring, you can't even talk to anybody because the sound of the roaring water is overwhelming.

It's like John said, I heard this and nothing else. This was an absolutely overwhelming sound that I heard. Now, he goes on in a couple other places in Revelation to use that exact same phrase where he communicates the same message. He's got this voice that's just loud and overwhelms all other sounds.

Now, another thing you see there is the right hand. Now, let me stick out the right hand. I'm a lefty, so I've got to be careful. The right hand. Now, the right hand was the hand of blessing and the hand of authority. If you go back there to the Genesis 48 passage, several times it talks about using the right hand, and Jacob would put his right hand on the sons and then bless them. Right hand, right hand.

It keeps repeating that message. The right hand is also the kingly position of authority. It's like the person with the kingly authority. That will be at the king's right hand. So this is the message that's been conveyed repeatedly in scripture. Now let's take a further look. Out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. Now, this sharp two-edged sword has sometimes been mistaken by interpreters for the Bible, and I think that's not the case, and here's why.

The Bible does talk about the Word of God being a sword in Ephesians 6.17 and Hebrews 4.12. And that's a good identification and a consistent identification in both those passages. But there's a reason why I think this is different. The word used in the passages in Ephesians and Hebrews that talks about the Word of God being a sword, that's a machaira.

That's the Roman short sword. The Romans would go with the shorter sword. It was easier to wield and you could be more skillful with it because it was smaller. It was sharp in both directions, and so either way you were swinging, you could get a cut with it.

The comparison to the Word of God is with that sword that is wielded in that way. But the word that John uses here for the sword coming out of his mouth is a different word, and John uses it consistently for the sword coming out of Christ's mouth, and that's called a ramphaia.

And that's different. It is a barbarian's battle sword, typically swung overhead. It's about five feet long. And the idea with that is the barbarians would come in swinging this heavy, long sword overhead. Two things. One, if you got hit by that thing, you're gone. It's to take off arms and heads. It was a vicious, vicious battle weapon.

The other thing is that being long, is they would come in swinging that, and they would take out a Roman soldier before the Roman soldier with his two-foot sword could even get to him. That's the sword that comes out of Christ's mouth, the ramphaya, the long barbarian battle sword. The one that's designed to just hack flesh.

So that's the reason for the difference here. All five times that that word is used, it's coming out of Christ's mouth. The picture here is not entirely true because it was about five feet long. So this would have been, if you were to take that symbol literally in terms of physical length, it would have been much longer than what's represented here.

Now, your mission impossible, remember the mission impossible that I've been giving you? Your mission impossible, should you choose to accept it, is to look up each of the verses referenced about the Ramphaya sword on your handout. It's on the back. Notice where the reference to the Ramphaya sword ends and see if you can figure out why there is no more reference to the sword after that.

That's your puzzle for the week, okay? Now, the next phrase I want to take a look at, his face was like the sun shining in its strength. Was this not like what Paul saw in Acts 26.13 when he was confronted by Christ on the road to Damascus? What happened to Paul, do you remember? Blinded, okay? And Paul refers in this Acts 26 passage to this overwhelming light that he saw at that point in time.

John is conveying to us, as he describes it here, the incomparable glory of our ascended, risen, reigning Christ. That's what he's telling us. It's like the sun. You can't even look at it. It's just impossible. So when we read that the Lord is transforming us from glory to glory in 2 Corinthians 3.18, doesn't that give you an awesome insight into what He is doing in our lives? Isn't that amazing to ponder? From glory to glory. Now, let's take a look here at Revelation 17. We'll continue on.

Revelation 1.17 and 18. is when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. And the living one. And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and Hades.

Now you see, what's John's response? Womp. John is down for the count here. This falling as a dead man is a pattern, again, what? We see right out of the Old Testament. These passages in Ezekiel and Daniel have very similar kinds of things where the prophets see the Lord and they're down. Daniel says that he was weak and just couldn't move. So John's description, falling as a dead man. This is the response when these prophets are given an opportunity to see the glory of the Lord. And the next thing, he placed his hand on me. That also comes as a pattern we see out of the book of Daniel.

Interesting difference, he says he placed his right hand. Here's one of the reasons why we can understand that what John is representing here is symbolic. What's in his right hand? Seven stars. And now he's going to take the right hand and put it on his shoulder. So the idea is he's symbolizing something here when he's speaking of these things.

So we need to understand what are these symbols saying. Each of them are either presented in the passage or are clear right out of the Old Testament or in some cases New Testament passages like I showed you here. The next thing he says, do not be afraid. And you know if you look up do not be afraid in the Bible, it shows up again and again and again and again. And you know what that tells me? Human beings have to be told to not be afraid.

It is something that shows up. Jesus says that numerous times in the New Testament. In one instance when John heard Jesus say, do not be afraid, it was over 60 years before this. Here's the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee and Christ is walking on the water. And what did they think that they saw? They said, we must be seeing a ghost. And his response to them is, do not be afraid. Something else before we move on here is take a look at what Jesus says after, do not be afraid. So let's read that.

He says, I am the first and the last. And we saw from Isaiah, those three passages there in Isaiah 41, 44 and 48, that I am the first and the last is a statement made only by God and as a matter of fact, he says, I am the first and the last and beside me there is no other.

That's pretty clear, isn't it? So what's Christ saying here? Christ is claiming deity when he says this. But there's more than that for the reason for saying this. He says, I was dead and I'm alive. These are things, again, that the Old Testament gives indication of. But that's undeniably, this is Christ. I'm alive not just once, I'm alive forevermore.

And then he says, and I have the keys of death and Hades. And I have on the top here Old Testament references. I snuck in a New Testament reference, sorry, at the bottom there. Revelation 20, 13, and 14 talks about Christ and his sovereignty over death and Hades and how he can deal with it. Having the key means he's got exclusive authority, doesn't he? He's the one who possesses that.

Now, Let's kind of back up where it says, do not be afraid. What was the response after that? Do not be afraid, and he tells them, this is who I am. And that should tell us something. We get in a situation where we feel fearful, where we feel like, hey, I have a good right to be afraid, right? What's the response? We're to look at who he is. It's because of who he is that John can be told, don't be afraid. And we're in that same position, aren't we? We need not be afraid. Why? Because of who Christ is. That's the basis for not being afraid. That's why He can say, do not be afraid. He doesn't just say it groundlessly. He says, do not be afraid, and then He tells us unequivocally who He is. Do not be afraid because I am the one who was raised to life. Do not be afraid because I'm the one who has final control over who lives and who dies. I am the one who has final control and victory over death.

Do you see that? Do not be afraid. If we understand who Christ is, then do not be afraid makes sense. If we don't understand who Christ is, then we have every reason to be afraid. Do you see the contrast there? It's sharp. If we know who He is, then do not be afraid. It makes plenty of sense. Our Lord goes on in talking to John in verse 19.

He says, Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things. Now this has been taken as a three-part division of the Book of Revelation. Do you see that? And the chart that I handed out like two weeks ago has the Book of Revelation, the chapters, broken up in these three divisions. The things which you have seen, right? Right now he's just seen them. The things which you have seen and the things which are. And that's chapters 2 and 3.

That's the present condition of the churches in Asia. Those are the things which are. And then he says, and the things which will take place after these things. That is, after the time of the churches. Okay? So that's the three-part division. The things that you've seen right now, and we've just read them.

The things which are, chapters 2 and 3, those are the condition of the churches, the way they were right then at that moment, and the things that are yet to come, the future things. And that's all the rest of the book of Revelation from chapters 4 through 22. So the Lord has basically laid out a three-part plan for John's writing. Now, 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 here's what he's doing, he's giving us a description of what some of these things are that John might question. My impression from this also is that John had no doubt what the other symbols represented. You see that? So now these two things are being clarified. So let's take a look at each one of those.

Now, it says the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. We have seven stars and seven angels, one for each of the churches. The Greek word there that's translated angels is angelos. Sounds kind of like angels, right? But the underlying meaning is messenger. And there are places in the New Testament where it is translated exactly that, as a messenger. And it is not, in those instances, indicating an angel. So, anyway, interpreters, as they've looked at this, have kind of scratched their heads and said, you know, what are these angels? What do those mean? And basically there are kind of three different views of those.

One of them is that those must be the pastor of each of the churches. That's one view. The only problem with that is that we know biblically that the intention of Scripture is that churches have multiple pastors or elders. Beyond that, we know from Acts 20 that there were multiple elders in Ephesus, which was one of these churches.

So that doesn't appear to be a good fit. There's another reason, and that's that nowhere else in scripture are pastors or shepherds called stars. So anyway, that was one guess. The other thought is that it actually refers to angels, but actually there's some reason for questioning that. A single angel is nowhere known to be assigned to each church.

The other thing is, as we read in the next weeks, as we read each of these messages to the churches, these angelos, these messengers, they appear to be included in the body of people to whom the message goes, because it says, write to the messenger of this church. The idea that that messenger is going to take it on. So that doesn't appear to be a good fit. I believe the best understanding is that these are simply messengers. And the idea that there would be one from each of the churches who carry the message from John to each of their own churches.

And this also fits well with John's reference in verse 3 to the singular of he who reads, that's in the singular form, he who reads would logically be the messenger, the one who carries the message to each of the churches and then reads it before the churches. Now, we have to ask the question, why would these messengers need to be in the right hand of the heavenly Christ? I've got to put my right hand up here.

Because the message that they are carrying would be opposed, even violently, by both the Romans and the Jews. By this time, the Emperor Domitian is in power. The Emperor Domitian was the emperor who had by that time the most severe and widespread persecution against the Christians, which is the reason why John was put on the Thyle of Patmos. It's possible that these messengers may have even been endangered by being with John or by carrying these messages.

So being in the right hand would be a symbol of being protected by and being cared for and blessed by. These messengers would be under the control of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, no John, don't worry, they're going to get there. They are under my protection. Each of the churches will get their message. Don't worry about it.

Now let's summarize. John has been summoned to see and listen to Christ in the heavenlies. He has seen that Christ is our heavenly High Priest. He has described Christ for us with clear symbols that tell us about the awesome glories of who our ascended Lord Jesus Christ is.

Remember, each one of those symbols, and you have it in your handout, comes from something straight out of the New Testament, or Old Testament in many cases, explained and understood. So each one of those symbols is not mysterious, foggy, and we were wondering. Each one of them is clearly understood from the rest of scripture that's already been laid out. Because remember, this is the last book of the Bible we're reading here.

He has described Christ for us with clear symbols that tell us about the awesome glories of our ascended Lord Jesus Christ. John has told us that Christ is telling him to write to the seven churches, the very ones that John must have had heavily on his heart.

Now, next week we're going to be looking at those seven churches in overview And then follow that with a closer look at each one of the seven churches. And by the way, there may be a surprise that shows up here. So you'll have to show up in the coming weeks in order to find out what the surprise is. And something you maybe didn't expect.

But let's pause and pray. Lord, how awesome it is that you've given John this magnificent glimpse, this incredible, unfathomable glory. of our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended and ministering for us as our heavenly high priest. And Lord, we also thank you that as we have many people on this planet right now who are afraid in many parts of the planet, and it seems like we go through waves of fear out in the world, that our heavenly high priest is telling us to not be afraid because of who he is. And we just pray that you would draw us to mind Lord, what things you have told us, who you are.

You are indeed the first in the last. There is nothing outside of you. You indeed are the one who is dead and now live. You are indeed the one who has all things in your hand. And we look to you, Lord, and want to just ask that you would draw us in every way to trust you. And for all those things that we might be afraid, that we'd instead look to you. And we just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.