The Introduction Pt 2

Good evening. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Would you all stand?

We want to welcome those of you who are joining us online as we begin our service and worship and continue in the study of God's Word.

Father, we ask that you would bless our evening, Lord, as we come together to worship you in song and to study your Word. We thank you that we can look to you in all areas of our lives, knowing that you are working in us both to will and do of your good pleasure, Lord. We thank you for the strength you give us to face life daily, the good, the bad, the ugly.

Lord, you are faithful to bring us through, and you're so good to us. I just lift up each one here tonight, Lord, that you would minister to hearts, Lord, that you would be glorified as we worship you in song, that we would be built up in the faith tonight, encouraged. And our walking witness for you, Lord, we come looking to you, the author and finisher of our faith, Lord. And I know it's the Wednesday night study in the middle of the week when we're in the middle of going through work and all the things that we need that encouragement, that time of just setting aside as a group of believers to worship you and to focus on the things of you, Lord.

And we just ask, Lord, for your blessing now.

We thank you for your love that's in spite of us, Lord, a sacred love that loves us, loved us, and is loving us now. You loved us when we were sinners. You loved us as sinners saved by grace. You'll love us for eternity, and we thank you for that, Lord. I'm as a suffering Savior, cross and raising from the dead, at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us.

You will return, and we thank you for that.

We thank you for the fact that you give us life.

It makes me think of Christmas Eve service and how that candlelight just extinguishes that darkness. Can't comprehend it. Light. Oh, we thank you for that, Lord, that we have in you, Lord. The restoration when it's needed, give you praise. Father, as Ryan comes up to teach your word tonight, anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring it forth, Lord.

And I pray that blessing on, that same anointing on the children's church portion and the youth group in the nursery. Be glorified, Lord. Fill us all afresh with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter one.

Revelation, chapter one.

Last week, as we started the book, we saw the introduction. As John introduced, this is really our subject for the book of Revelation. Our subject, our theme for the book of Revelation is the unveiling of Christ. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ, which he gave to John. And that's what he's been doing for us. And so as he introduced the book, we come now to the next section of chapter one.

And so the title of tonight's message is The Vision of Jesus. Because that's exactly what this is. And so what I would like to do is start in verse nine. I'm gonna read all the way through the end of the chapter. And then we're gonna look at three, three things in verses nine through 20 of chapter one. We're gonna hear the voice. We're gonna see the vision.

And then we're gonna learn the call that God has for John. Starting off in verse nine of chapter one, it says this. I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance, which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 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, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with 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.

But reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash, his head and his hair were white like wool, like snow. And his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has 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 a sword. And his face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the living one. And I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore, write the things which you have seen,

the things which are, the things which will take place after, these things. 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. It starts off with John hearing a voice. But as he explains to us this voice,

he takes time to once again identify who he is. He starts off by saying, I, John. Now, we know that this is John the apostle. We know that this is the one who has been the longest living of all of the saints, the longest living of all of, excuse me, of all of the apostles up to that point in time. All of the apostles were gone. He was the only one of the 12 that was left.

He is the one who started off as one of those sons of thunder. But he is the one who became known as the disciple of love. He says, I, John. And then he identifies himself in a handful, in a handful of ways. He says, your brother. In other words, I'm, I'm one of you guys, even though I'm receiving this revelation. And for the church of Ephesus, he had been their pastor.

Even though I am one of those 12, I'm still, I'm your brother. I'm just one of you guys. And I'm a fellow partaker in the tribulation. Now we must understand something that when he says this in verse nine, he's not speaking of the great tribulation. He's speaking of the tribulation that Jesus said would come upon everyone. In this world, you will have tribulation,

trouble, distress, a pressing together because of the persecution that they were going through. He said, I'm a fellow partaker of the same kind of tribulation that you all are going through. Because remember, how did John end up on this island that he's going to identify for us here in just a moment? Well, according to church tradition, they tried to boil him in oil and it didn't work.

So they exiled him to Patmos. If anybody understood what it was to live in tribulation, it was John. He said, I, John, your brother. And fellow partaker in the tribulation and of the kingdom. I love that. That's how he identifies himself as a member of the kingdom with us. Just about to finish the book of Matthew. We're reminded about what Jesus taught the disciples about being a kingdom citizen,

about what being a kingdom citizen look like and about what it took to become a kingdom citizen. If you remember the one thing that it took to become a kingdom citizen was to be poor in spirit. Absolutely. Destitute of yourself and fully and completely dependent upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He says, man, I'm just one of your brothers. I'm going through the same tribulations you guys are going through.

I am just a kingdom citizen, just someone who has been saved by the grace of God. He says, but not only am I a part of the kingdom, but also I'm a partaker of the perseverance, which are in Jesus. He goes on to say, I, John, and then he gave that description. Was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. This island that he was on was a very small island off the coast of Ephesus.

And it was, if you will, his own island prison that he had ended up in. Kind of like when Paul said, I'm a prisoner of the gospel. I'm a prisoner for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's sort of how John identifies himself to says I'm on the island of Patmos, but I'm here for a specific reason. I'm here because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that we can look at that two ways.

Number one, being a preacher of the gospel is what sent him there. Being one who stood for the gospel that very much opposed the Roman government of the time is why he ended up there. But a messenger of the gospel that he'll receive through this revelation is also why he's there. Because God had a revelation that he wanted to ultimately give to the people of God that he would give through the messenger of God, which is John himself.

And the only way he could receive that revelation, is if he was on the island of Patmos. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? That oftentimes what we would consider to be the most difficult circumstances of our lives is where God actually speaks to us the most clearly. That we have to end up in that place because that's where our ears will be opened to whatever it is God wants to say.

That sometimes we have to come to a place of going, okay, I give up. What do you want to teach me through this? What do you want to show me through this? Well, that's why he's on the island of Patmos. There were no distractions there and he could fully receive the revelation that God had for him while he was there. He goes on to say, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet.

He says, I was in the spirit. Now that doesn't just mean he was walking in the spirit. Although walking in the spirit, I think is how he ended up in this place. The idea is that he was actually caught up into a spiritual realm. That he was so full of himself. He was so focused on the things of God that God began to speak to him in a very spiritual realm because all of the things that he's going to see are given to him in that spiritual realm.

And may I say, brothers and sisters, God wants to speak to all of us in the spirit, but oftentimes we're too busy walking in the flesh for us to be caught up in the spirit. John says, I was in the spirit and he says, I, it was on the Lord's day. Now there's a little debate on what he means by the Lord's day, but I'm gonna tell you what I think, which is what some other commentators think as well. I think that he's talking about, I think that because that's oftentimes what the disciples referred to Sunday as the Lord's day.

But I also think it's somewhat symbolic because do you remember all of the times that Jesus appeared to the apostles after he had been raised from the dead? Do you realize almost always what day it was? It was the Lord's day. And so I think that that's the day was Sunday that this revelation comes to him. He says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And what did he hear?

He said, I heard a voice behind me like the sound, the sound of a trumpet. It wasn't the sound of a trumpet, but it was like the sound of a trumpet. Well, if you heard a trumpet sound, what would him, what would it immediately do? It would cause you to pay attention. This was a loud voice that caught his ear like nothing had in a very long time in an Island that was completely silent.

He heard what was so loud that it was almost like somebody playing a trumpet in his ear. And as he heard this voice, it was loud. Like a trumpet. I want you to notice what it says to him, right in a book, what you see and send it to the seven churches. As he hears this voice that begins to speak to him, there's a command that's given, and this command will be given again at the end of chapter one,

the command or the call that he has is to write, write down what you see and send it out to the seven churches. I thought about this phrase quite a bit. Write down what you see. I've been thinking about it the past two or three days as I've been kind of going about my business. And I thought, I wonder why God had to tell him to write these things down. You would think if you receive the revelation that we're about to read,

the first thing that you would automatically think is I better write this down because this seems really important. Whatever's going on right now, but God had to command him to do it. Why do you think God had to command him to do it? Why? There's two reasons. Number one, because in all of the prophetic language, so much of the prophetic language, the language of the old Testament,

God said, this isn't for now. Seal this up. Remember what God was always telling Daniel, seal this up because the time isn't yet. But see, this was not going to be that way. He's already told us that the time is short. So God says, I want you to write this down. Don't seal this up. Don't keep it to yourself. Write it down. Do you know the second reason why I think God had to tell him to write it down is because it would have been John's tendency to be so caught up with everything that he saw.

That he would forget to write it down. As a matter of fact, this will not be the last time in both times in chapter one will not be the last time he's told, Hey, write this down, right? Like the angels constantly going, you're going to want to write that. It's, it's important. Write that down. I'm a person who generally enjoys writing things down, but you know,

I've noticed about myself over the last couple of years. I get caught watching a lot in my own devotional time. I love when I get something out of a verse, and then I take some time to write about it. As a matter of fact, I did some clearing out of some different things the other day, and I was taking my stacks of notebooks and sticking them somewhere where one day my girls will be able to look and say, I know dad wrote something in that, but I can't read it because he wrote like a two year old.

But isn't it fun that we have all the things that my two year old dad wrote all of these years. And if only someone could decipher it, but I like to write those things down. But what I've noticed is that here lately, I've just been sitting back almost overwhelmed by the things going on in the world and almost tired, from the things going on in life that I can get a little bit lazy about writing things down. And you know what I'm sensing the Lord telling me even through this, hey, write it down, write it down so that you remember, don't let yourself get caught watching, write these things down because I think John is going to be so overwhelmed with the things that he sees that his general tendency will be just to go,

right? So that's what he tells them to do. Write these things down and then you're going to send them to where the seven churches, the seven churches that this is addressed to. Notice what it says to Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum to Thyatira to Sardis to Philadelphia and to Laodicea seven specific churches. Why is that important? Well, first of all, because I think it is going to be written to these seven specific churches.

Each of these churches, which we'll see in chapters two and three is going to receive not only a specific message for them, but the general contents of the book is for these seven churches. I think that it has a direct context for those churches. But as we talked about last week, the word seven in scripture often speaks of a completion. It speaks of something being complete.

And so I think that it not only is for those seven specific churches, but it's for all of the church in general. As a matter of fact, one of the things that I'll point out next week as he begins to address the seven churches with the things which are the messages to each of these seven churches. One of the things that I'll point out is something that we have to pay attention to. Anytime we study scripture, we have to first, first of all, look at its particular context.

Then we have to look at its broader context. And then we have to look at its personal context. Like for each of the seven churches, there's going to be something that was specific to that church at that time. There's something that will be specific to all churches at all times. But there's also something that's going to be specific for me right now. And so he says,

send these things to these seven churches. And then he lists the seven churches. Now, after he hears this voice, he begins to ask a question. Who's talking to me? This is sort of an interesting thought, right? Because John had spent about three years with Jesus. Now there's something interesting about our ears. And that's that we have a tendency to remember certain tones and certain sounds.

And we recognize voices, right? One of the fascinating things to me about my dad, and I would say this if he was sitting right here too, is, is his ability to detect people's voices. My dad worked with young people for a lot of years. And now young people will, well, they're not young anymore. People will come up to him. Sorry if my dad worked with you and you're not young anymore.

People will come up to him and they will say, Hey, Mr. Nichols, do you remember me? 99.9% of the time, he will be able to call them out based on just hearing their voice. Why? Because our ears are tuned to that. We can recognize, we can recognize people's voices. Now, John had spent three years with Jesus. And I think even now, 62 years later, he still should have been able to recognize the voice of Jesus.

But this was not, this was not the incarnate Jesus. This is as J. Vernon McGee says, the post incarnate Jesus. This isn't the suffering servant. This is the victorious savior. This is the victorious King. And so the voice sounds just a little bit different. Because this voice is not meek and mild. This voice is commanding and authoritative like a trumpet. And so as he hears this voice,

tell him, write these things down. The next thing that we see is the vision. Notice what it says in verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. You can kind of picture this in your mind, right? Right? John sitting there caught up in the spirit, perhaps meditating on the things of the Lord, perhaps caught up in prayer, whatever it is.

And he hears this voice speaking and he's going last time. I knew on the aisle of the population of the aisle of Patmos was John. Who's that? And so he kind of turns around to see who it is. And I want you to notice the vision that will be overwhelming to him because we'll see his reaction in just a minute. I want you to allow yourself to think about how overwhelming,

this would have been to John spoiler alert. He's going to fall down at the feet of Jesus. Like he's dead. That's how overwhelming the vision is that he's about to see Jesus. And he begins to describe exactly what he saw. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. Now, hopefully the picture that if you've been with us through the,

the teaching of the law, hopefully the picture that you initially get in your mind of the seven golden lampstands is none other than the lampstand itself that sits in the holy place of the tabernacle. Oh, there's one small difference between the lampstand in the tabernacle and the lampstands that he sees the lampstand in the tabernacle was one stand with several branches whose lamps sat on top. These are seven freestanding lampstands on top of which is going to be a lamp that are all glowing. That's, that's the first thing that he sees.

Now we're going to see in just a little bit what the interpretation by none other than Jesus himself of what these seven lampstands are. It's the church. Okay. It's seven churches. He'll explain that in just a minute, but he sees these seven lampstands sitting in front of him. And then the next thing that he sees in verse 13 is in the middle of the lampstands.

I saw one like a son of man. Now I find it interesting that he sees the son of man. But before we get to the description of the son of man, I want you to notice where he's standing. He's standing in the midst of the lampstands. Why do I care that he's standing in the midst of the lampstands? Well, because as the church, Jesus is always to be in the midst of the church.

He dwells amongst us. Remember what we talked about in Deuteronomy? We talked about the church. With the establishment of the camp of the nation of Israel, you had the 12 tribes all in like a cross around one central thing. Do you remember the central thing in the camp of the nation of Israel? The central thing in the camp of the nation of Israel was the tabernacle

because it was indicative of the fact that God dwelt in the midst of the people. And the same is true about Jesus in the midst of these lampstands. Remember what? What? We're told in the epistles of two or three are gathered in my name. I'm right there in the midst of them. Brothers and sisters, we must never forget that when we gather, it's not just gathering with each other.

We gather with Jesus right here in the midst of us. Because when we gather, I hope that it's not just so that you hear the bald guy talk on stage. I hope that it's not just so that you can sing some songs or visit with each other. I hope it's because you know that you're going to meet with Jesus here tonight. I hope it's so that you know that on Sunday morning,

you're going to meet with Jesus because he is who is dwelling in the midst of us. And who, how does he describe him? He says, one like a son of man. That's a really distinct title that's given. Matter of fact, the term son of man, I should have written down the number. It's used an incredible number of times throughout scripture. A lot of which are used in the book of Ezekiel,

speaking of himself as the messenger that God was sending. But you see this title for son of man was a very, very distinct title for God. It, first of all, identifies that Jesus identifies himself with us. He was the son of man. But do you know that there's also deity attached to this title? Write down in the margin of your Bible, Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven, because in Daniel chapter seven,

as Daniel describes a vision that he has of God, he refers to him as the son of man. He goes on to, continue to describe this son of man as clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet. I believe that this speaks of two different things. Number one, anytime I think of somebody clothed, I'm reminded of what we as believers in Jesus Christ are clothed with, and that is with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And so as it speaks of him being clothed with a robe that goes to his feet, I'm reminded that he is clothed in righteousness. But he, be sure to point out that this robe goes all the way to his feet. In other words, this is a very long robe. Now, if you remember the story of Joseph, Joseph was his father's favorite son. And do you remember what kind of robe Joseph's father made for him?

It translated a coat of many colors, which is a really poor translation. Really, it could be translated a long robe. Why? Because those who had authority wore the long robes. Because they didn't have to get out in the trenches with everybody else. They could wear a long flowing robe. The ones that were out working, they wore a robe that could be girded up very easily

so that they could get down and do the work. Ah, but the boss man, he wore the long cloak. He wore the long robe. And so while this robe not only speaks of his righteousness, it also speaks of his dignity and his authority. He says, I saw one like the son of man standing in the midst of the golden lampstands. He had a robe that reached to his feet and he was girded across his chest with a golden sash.

Do you remember someone else that wore a sash about them? It was none other than the high priest. But do you remember what the high priest's sash looked like? There was different colored threads with some gold thread mixed in. You see the difference between the sash of the high priest and the sash clothed around Jesus. That it is all in gold. Why? Because Jesus is so much better than the high priest.

We're told that in the book of Hebrews. He goes on to continue to describe this vision that he saw. Not only was he wearing a golden sash that was girded across his chest, but his head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow. His head and his hair. I bet you're picturing Santa, right? Right now, right? That's probably what you're picturing. Head and hair full of just white, like wool.

White like snow. What does this speak of? Well, oftentimes when we think of someone with white hair, we think of someone that has great wisdom. I saw somebody I haven't seen for a while today and they say, hey, I've noticed something about your beard. There's a lot more white in there than it used to be. And I said, I like to think that it's wisdom, but it's really probably just stress.

Anyway, but oftentimes when we think of that white, we're reminded of wisdom. But do you know what else we're reminded of? When we think of white, do you remember what God said in the book of Isaiah chapter one, though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. You see the whiteness of his hair, the whiteness of his beard, not only speaks of his great wisdom, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but it also speaks of his distinct purity.

He goes on from there to describe that his eyes were like a flame of fire. Now, most commentators had one thing to say about this. They said, this also speaks of a purifying or a purity because his eyes were like fire because fire purifies things. But there's one thought that I had, and I don't think I'm stretching this too far, but I'm reminded of what we're told in the book of Hebrews, that our God is like a consuming fire.

And so not only when he sees Jesus, does he see great purity in his eyes, but he sees that his own life is being consumed by that of Jesus himself. He goes on to say in verse 15, his feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace. Now in biblical speak, bronze always speaks of judgment. You remember that there was the bronze altar that sat just outside of the tabernacle where their sacrifices for sin were made.

And so when he says that his feet were burnished bronze, as if they'd been heated up in a fire, we're reminded first of all, that Jesus is the one that has, the authority to judge. He will be the one who does the judging, which is why it's so important that he is either your savior or your judge. Either way, you'll bow down to him. We see that he has that authority to judge, but there's something else that also comes to mind because you'll notice that the bronze is on his feet as if he has walked through a fire, because what did Jesus walk through for us?

We just talked about it Sunday morning. He walked through the very judgment of God upon sin for us. And so as he sees him, he sees him in his purity. He sees him in his holiness and he sees him as one who not only is fit to judge, but has taken the place of our judgment for us. He goes on to describe Jesus as he says, his voice was like the sound of many waters.

There's something almost mesmerizing about water, is there not? And there's something even more mesmerizing when you're at a waterfall. And as you hear water cascading over rocks, falling down and landing into a pool beneath, because the roar is so loud that it's almost hypnotic, but it makes it to where you can hardly hear the things that are going on around you. It's awe inspiring.

It's captivating. It's overwhelming. And he says, that's what his voice is like. The voice that spoke, that was like a trumpet, was also like the sound of many waters, all encompassing, awe inspiring, captivating. As he listened to what came out of his mouth. He says in verse 16, in his right hand, he held seven stars. Again, we'll talk about those stars in just a moment because Jesus himself will interpret what those stars are in verse 20.

He says, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two edged sword, a sharp, two edged sword came out of his mouth. Now, almost always in scripture, the word itself is spoken of as being a two edged sword. As a matter of fact, in the book of Hebrews chapter four, verse 12, it says that the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword able to pierce between bone and marrow. And that's what's coming out of his mouth.

Why? Because the very word of God, is what's flowing from him. That sound of many waters was actually the word of God flowing out, piercing everything. But we're also reminded of something. We're also reminded of the fact that when Jesus returns the second time, how will he defeat his enemies? It won't be with his great military might. It won't be because he's mounted the best defense.

It won't be because he has the best army. We'll all just be writing and going. Yay. After Jesus defeats everyone with, uh, word of his mouth. And so it's not only the word of God that is so important to our own lives, but it will be the word of God. They will ultimately bring victory over every single one of his enemies. And so he says out of his mouth comes this two edged sword.

And then he goes on to say, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. I want you to think about what it would be like to stare at the sun. Don't stare. At the sun. Do you guys remember a few years ago when we had the solar or the, uh, yeah, the solar eclipse and everybody wanted to go out and see the solar eclipse, but then everybody got scared.

Oh no. What if we take all of our students out to see the solar eclipse and the sun pierces their eyes and everybody canceled school because they were scared. Kids would go out and they would look at the sun and it would pierce their eyes and then they would get sued over it, right? They'd go blind and everybody'd sue the school over it. So all the schools canceled because of it.

Well, it's because the sun has so much power. There is so much energy that flows off of the sun that when you look at it, while it illuminates everything around you to look at it is too much for us to take in because our eyes can never take in the fullness of the glow of the sun. He says, that's, that's what his face was like. It's shown so bright that I can't even take it in that my eyes wanted to look away because of the great holiness that was shining forth from him.

And then he goes on to say, in verse 17, we begin now with the next section, which is the call, which he knows how John reacts. Verse 17. It says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.

There's something so absolutely appropriate about the way that John reacts at this point in time. There's something so appropriate about the way that John loses every bit of his physical strength when he sees Jesus and the fullness of his glory at this point. There's something so appropriate about the way that John loses every bit of his physical strength when he sees Jesus and the fullness of his glory at this point in time. And it's because no matter how familiar he was with him while he walked on earth, he is still God.

And he is still the creator of the heavens and the earth. I always get nervous when people tell me that they've had a vision of Jesus and they're not terrified by it. When people tell me about their vision of Jesus and how they just sat and talked with him and they were not utterly destroyed. By it. Because from what I read in scripture, anybody that had a true picture of God,

anyone that had a true vision of Jesus, they were never the same. Now listen, it's in a positive way, but I want you to notice how John reacts. He fell down like a dead man. When Moses had a vision of God and the vision that he had was the afterburners of God's glory. It caused his face to glow like a lightbulb. When Isaiah had a vision of God, it caused him to say,

Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips and I come from a people of unclean lips. When Daniel had a vision of God, he was sick for three weeks. When John has a vision of God, he falls down like a dead man. Listen, we need to understand something, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. I absolutely believe that God shows himself in great and mighty visions, but we must understand that when God has his effect in our lives,

the most beautiful thing it can do is break us. I will always come back to the exact same statement because it's what God has shown me in my life to be the most important place for any of us to be. And that is at the feet of Jesus Christ, beautifully broken by him, absolutely destroyed by the grandeur of Jesus Christ.

I remember hearing a guy's name is Britt Merrick. Heard him at a youth pastors conference one time, and he was talking about, about some of the things that God had done in his life. And he said, and when Jesus did that, my life was ruined for the good. Because that's what God wants to do with us, right? Because I'm here to tell you right now, if you'll fall dead at the feet of Jesus,

and you will stand in power in the place of eternity, right? There's just something wonderful about coming to that place where we have that true vision of God. And we say, woe is me. Woe is me. Because you know what Jesus does when we come to that place? Notice what it says. He placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid. You see the beautiful place,

the beautiful thing about us coming to a place where we are so broken before God, because we realize the glory of who he is, a terrible state of who I am. When we are broken and humble before him like that, is that he lays his hand on us and says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. It reminds me of my oldest daughter. When my oldest daughter was a baby, she was never been one to really enjoy sleeping.

She likes it now. Now that she's a teenager, one of her favorite things to do. But when she was a baby, she, she, she could do without it. So we try to put her to bed at night. She never wanted to really calm down, but I learned something. If I would just place my hand right on her back, as she was starting to fall asleep, her whole body would just relax. She would start to drift off to sleep.

If I tried to remove my hand too soon before she was really asleep, she would start stirring again. I could put my hand right back on her. She would go back to sleep. She just needed that presence. She needed that touch from her dad. She needed that feeling. When she knew I was there, she would drift right off to sleep. That's what this makes me think of. Is the fear that gripped John because he had just seen the post incarnate Christ

and all of his glory and all he knew was that was too much for him. And so what did Jesus do? Jesus put his hand on him. He said, do not be afraid. Do you know what else this makes me think of? Remember Mary Magdalene when she was in the garden? We'll talk about this in a couple of weeks. When she was in the garden with Jesus, only she didn't think it was Jesus.

She thought it was a gardener because she thought someone had stolen his body and she's absolutely freaking out about it. And finally, Jesus just goes, Mary. And there was just something about the way he said her name. There was like nobody else had before because that was the way he'd always said her name in the past. And she went, Oh Jesus. I think that's kind of what happens with John here.

He puts his hand on him. He says, don't be afraid. And then he begins to describe himself. He says, I am the first and the last. And of course, we know this is Jesus because it's all written in red. He says, I am the first and the last and the living one. And I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and of Hades. Jesus starts off by telling him,

remember I'm the first and I'm the last. We could also say the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He said, don't be afraid. This is me. I'm the first and the last. And then he refers to himself as the living one, the one who was dead and is alive for ever more. Oh, now John's starting to pick up on it. I knew who this is. It was the one who was dead and who was alive forevermore.

And then he tells him, I am the one who holds the keys to death and Hades. Now, I never thought about this before until I studied it this time, but a commentator that I read pointed it out. He said, if you think about it, he just told him that he is the one who has power over both physical death, over our physical bodies, that's death and over our spiritual bodies. That's Hades.

He said, I am the one who holds the keys to death and Hades. I am the one who holds the keys to death and Hades. I am the one who holds the keys to death and Hades. I am the one who holds the key to your physical life. And I am the one that holds the key to your eternal life. He goes on in this call to say, therefore write the things which you have seen, the things which are,

and the things which will take place after these things. Verse 19 forms for us, if you will, an outline for the book of revelation. He says, first of all, I want you to write. Remember second time. Now in chapter one, he said, once you write these things down, because what happened with John, the voice that said, write these things down. He's like, who are you?

And he turns around. He's like, it's okay. It's just me. Stand up. Don't be afraid. Write these things down. But these are the three things that he's supposed to write. Number one, the things which he has seen. Well, he just did that for us, right? He wrote down the things which he had seen, the vision of Jesus. And isn't it wonderful that he gave us that vision of Jesus.

He gave us that picture, that picture of what Jesus really looks like. He says, write down the things which you have seen. Second thing I want you to write is I want you to write the things that are. That will encapsulate chapters two and three of the book of revelation, because the things which are is the church age that we're living in right now. I'll explain that a little bit more when we get to chapters two and three next week.

So write the things which are, and then write the things which will take place. And this is the third part. After these things, in other words, after the things of the church age that you're living in right now, after these things, that will be chapters four through 22, which is the end of the book of revelation. That will be the outline. He says, these are the things I want you to write.

The things that you've seen, the things which are, and the things which must take place after these things. It's interesting because when chapter four starts, same Greek words are used there. It says, after these things, I was in heaven. And so that will be the outline that we work off of for the book of revelation. And then he gives a quick little understanding of what's going on.

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. He says, just so you know, just a little bit of explanation for you. Let me tell you about the mystery of the stars and the lampstands. The stars are the angels of the seven churches.

Now, hopefully you've asked yourself a question at that point in time. Who are the angels of the seven churches right there? May ask himself that question because that's a great question. Are these actual angels or is there something different that goes on here? Well, depending on who you read, there's a couple of different opinions. There's probably more than two,

but two mainly that I saw one is that these are actually, these are angels who are sort of guardian angels over the seven churches. Perhaps it's some aspect of the Holy spirit who is in charge of the seven churches. But then there's the interpretation that I like to think is really the more natural, maybe a little bit more understandable interpretation. And that's the, these seven angels, which by the way, the word angel simply means messenger.

Seven messengers of the seven churches are really just the seven pastors of these seven lampstands. Or these seven churches. To me, that makes the most sense. My philosophy in general in studying scripture is that if it makes the most common sense, then it probably makes the most biblical sense because God doesn't want to make things extra difficult for us.

God's not trying to conceal things from us. God works in a very common sense sort of way. And then that's how I feel about what he has to say here. He says the seven angels or the seven stars are the seven angels. Of the seven churches. And then the seven lampstands are the seven churches. And so he's given us this vision. He heard the voice. He's seen the vision and he's,

he's received the call. And now it's time for God to begin to speak to him about the things that are going on to speak to him, the message of the seven churches. So we're going to wrap up there for this evening. And next week, we'll get into the messages to the seven churches. Would you bow with me? Father, we come to you and thank you for the time that we have in your word here tonight.

And Lord, I thank you for a fresh vision of Jesus. Father, I pray that you would help us to gain that fresh vision of Jesus Christ. Father, that we would be able to know and understand more clearly who you are. Lord, as you are in the midst of us, help us to know you the way you desire to be known. Father, we thank you and we praise you for who you are. Jesus name.

Amen. Be blessed.