The Glorified Christ - Revelation 1:9-20

Last week we covered the first eight verses, and it's interesting, as you look at the verses, this is a long book, especially by New Testament standards, it's a long book, and yet, what would you take away from last week? What I take away from it, I look at it, is Here is Jesus Christ, the one who is constantly loving us. That's one of the things I take away from last week's passage.

The one who is constantly loving us. There's another thing, too, and that is it's a blessing promised for those who read and hear the book. That's unique in the New Testament, at least, if not the whole Bible. So here's the last book of the Bible, and it's got a promise of blessing for those who read and hear it.

As we look into this week's passage, we're going to finish up chapter one, but one of the things that's going to give us a chance to do is to put into practice several of the interpretive assumptions that we surfaced the first day. We're going to see, for example, where John says, this means this, right flat out, this means this. We're going to see that The symbol stands for what it means, not what does it look like. We're going to see that as well, and a few other things. So this will be case in point practice right off the bat. So we'll take a look at that. The first thing we take note of is Jewish rather than Greek symbolism. What's the difference between Jewish and Greek symbolism? Jewish symbolism, what? Yeah, what does it mean? Greek symbolism, what does it look like? And we tend to, in our culture, we tend to have the Greek symbolism imprinted. We start reading this thing and say, man, that's a monstrosity. And it's because our natural thinking is, what does it look like?

In parallel with that, the Jews also would write poetry And they would not rhyme the sounds like we do. We do the Greek pattern, we rhyme the sounds, right? They rhyme the meanings. Which, by the way, makes the Bible consistent no matter what language you translate it in. You don't lose the rhyming of the sound because you're not trying to rhyme the sound, but they rhyme the meaning. So no matter what language you translate it in, it still rhymes the meaning, right?

Cool. OK, in your appendix, you've got a picture that looks like this. This is the Song of Solomon illustrated. Some of you may have seen this before. It's intentionally humorous, but it's also to show the idea of what happens when you take Jewish symbols, Jewish figures of speech, and make that. Do you have a copy here? What happens when you make that so that it's what it looks like instead of what it means? And so you end up with this very strange, and by the way, this is a description of a beautiful woman who happens to have a bunch of sheep coming down off the top and back of her head and who has a neck that looks like a stone tower with shields on the side, right? So that's if you take the figures of speech or the symbols in Song of Solomon and make them literal. So anyway, illustrates the idea.

The other point to make here is where is this? We're going to see a switch from the earthly scene where John starts off Let's kind of step our way through the slides here if you don't mind for a minute. Here's another map that kind of gives the idea.

Here's Patmos, which is a prison island where John's writing from. And here are the seven churches on Roman mail routes and Roman military routes on the western part of Asia Minor. Okay. Now, there's Patmos from an aerial view, looking obliquely at the island.

There's an artist's depiction of John in Revelation. And here he begins to turn around and look at the Lord. Here is an artist's depiction of what he sees, but with Greek symbolism. What does it look like, right? Not what does it mean. Here is another artist's depiction.

Hello. I'm getting response out of this thing. There we go. I'm getting too much response. Wow. I have to work on this one. Okay, there it goes. This is another artist's depiction of what we're going to see described there. And there we go. Here's the chart that's on the back of your binder if you've got one of those. And it was something we'll continue to refer to. We're going to finish up chapter one, which is the first column there. And so that's where we'll be today. And now addressing the question of where.

We're going to switch from the first verse there, 1-9, which is on the earth, to going up on the heavenly scene. So he's going to describe for the first time a heavenly view of things. Okay, let's look at Revelation 1-9. As with the verses that follow, this is in the New American Standard that I have there.

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. Now, John could have written claiming his apostleship. He could have said, I'm an apostle and you've got to listen to me.

But what does he do instead? He comes across to them very humbly and puts himself on a level with them and equal to those in the church that he's writing there. He also writes I, John, which is, by the way, this is the first chapter, right? He writes I, John. When's the next time he does it? Last chapter. Mirror image pattern there, okay?

And he talks about the, he's a brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance. This is the tribulation that means trials and troubles. They're not in the tribulation, okay? It means trials and troubles, which many of them are going through John himself.

Why is John writing from Patmos? Why is he writing from Patmos? He's a prisoner there. And he knows quite well that many of the believers that he's writing to are also going through various kinds of trouble. Some of them great trouble. And some of them even to the point where it's threatening death. So he's writing to people as someone, hey, I'm going through it and you're going through it.

The next thing there, the kingdom is the anticipated thousand-year earthly kingdom. The anticipation of that from Revelation chapter 20. We'll see towards the end of the book. The perseverance is the God-given patience with circumstances that believers have through such earthly trials. There are two words for patience in the Bible. There's patience with people and there's patience with circumstances. This is the word for patience with circumstances.

It's interesting, you know, we have sometimes words in English where it's pretty general and we'll use that word for lots of different things. Not always, but often in Greek they'll have a specific word for each kind. We can say I love my wife and boy do I love hot dogs. And we use the same word for it. To the Greeks that would be unthinkable. And so this is one of those cases where it's the kind of patience is a patience with circumstances. And they have a different word for patience with people.

John is writing from the Roman prison island called Patmos. He has been sent there by Emperor Domitian, according to extra-biblical accounts. Scripture doesn't say so, but it fits with the extra-biblical account that says so. The reason that John had been exiled to Patmos was because of the Word of God, the message which God had given to him, and for testifying about Jesus Christ. Verse 10 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. Then he lists the seven churches in the same order that the messages occur in the second and third chapters there. John wrote literally here, I was in spirit.

Although in the English, typically as a definite article, the Greek does not. Now, when the Greek does not have the definite article, the, the focus is not on the spirit specifically, but on the character of the One. And this isn't the usual walking in the spirit, which does have the definite article. This is the mode of special revelation.

John's going to use that in-spirit expression here in chapter 4, 17 and 21, as you see it referenced there in the handout. He's given, by means of the Spirit, revelation that's extraordinary. And he's going to be having a view of things that's exceptional for the rest of the book. Exceptional for the rest of the book. Let's look at the top of page 3 there, verse 14. He describes the Lord. Oh, excuse me, I need to correct myself. These are double-sided now because we want to try to fit them in the binder. Page 2.

This, on the Lord's day, means a day in which, some have thought rather, that this means a day in which the Lord was influential, or some have suggested it means the day of the Lord, meaning this future time of tribulation and millennium and all those things.

However, by the time of John's writing, this exact Greek phrase was used in the seven churches by writers in that area by writers that we know had either direct contact with John or knew somebody who had direct contact with John. Several instances of this exact expression meaning Sunday, what we call Sunday. So, why Sunday? Why would the believers Why would the believers gather on Sunday? Why would this be called the Lord's Day?

First day of the week. First day of the week? Good. And why was that valuable? Pardon? Christ arose on that day, right? The believers marked that new time, and it's not the same as the Sabbath, okay? And that was their customary time of gathering together, that first day of the week.

Now John writes here, a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet. Okay, remember what we said? A loud voice like the sound of a trumpet. Now remember we said like or as, used again and again? Here you see it, right? Why is it like the sound of a trumpet? If you're standing up next to a trumpet, what's it going to be like?

Yeah, very loud. When I was teaching through Revelation about six years ago, actually, I started about seven years ago, I said, loud voice, really, really loud. And they had this hooked up so that when I said that really loud, it said it really, really loud in the nursery. And all of a sudden, the nursery, I'm told, went up with this great uproar. So I'm a little gun shy, I feel. Pardon me for not yelling out loud voice so much.

But, so it occurs 19 times, it never, here's a pattern, 19 times, so John's real consistent, in that 19 times, this being one of them, never comes from the earth. The loud voices always come from the heavenly scene. Why do you think that would be? Why would that be? Okay, it's where the Lord is, okay. What would a loud voice convey to you? Pay attention. You're going to get your attention, right? Authority, right. Power and authority, something to get your attention.

And so 19 times he keeps coming out with this loud voice, loud voice, loud voice, repetitive pattern. And he makes a comparison here as we brought to your attention, like or as, comparing it to something we know. If you had heard, if you were standing next to a trumpet going off, you know, it would be jarring, right? Well, he says that's what it's like. It's just overwhelming to have this incredibly loud voice grab you like that.

So here is John, who is told by Christ, and we'll see clearly that it is him, write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. Now, we have this thing called books where we bind it on one side. Those weren't invented until at least a few decades after John died. So it isn't a book like we see here, although it's certainly fine that we have Revelation in this kind of a book. But John's perception was more like this is a scroll, where they'd tie together, like we would kind of wrap a present, they'd tie together a pile of parchments. So a scroll or a pile of parchments, that would be the concept of a book there.

The seven churches are those named here in sequence in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Now, here I want you to pause and think about something. Here's John. How long has it been, since he's writing about 96 AD, in round numbers, how long has it been since he has seen the Lord face-to-face? It's been six decades, okay? I'm not quite there. It's been six decades since he has seen the Lord face-to-face.

Where was that? Well, on the cross he did, but how about after that? His resurrection and then in the upper room. And where was the final place? The ascension off the Mount of Olives, right? So here he saw the Lord ascended from the Mount of Olives. That was 60 years ago.

Now he's seeing the Lord for the first time since then. Let me ask you this question. Does the Lord look the same? He recognizes him. He claims, as we'll see, to be the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's some things about the description here that are, frankly, even more potent. But imagine John not having seen the Lord for six decades, probably plus a few more years, and now seeing the Lord again for the first time.

This has got to grab it. Yes. Has the Lord gone back to being fully God-like? Think about this. This is the heavenly scene. The humanity has been taken out. Well, it's not that the humanity is taken out, but he's fully taken on that heavenly God-man expression. Fully taken it on. And matter of fact, we're about to see in the description here a role that John has never seen in Christ in quite the same way. So this is going to be something new for him. Here's John in verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice. That's an interesting way of putting it. Anybody see a voice? See mine? What does that mean? It's kind of a compressed expression. He's turned to see the place where the voice came from. It's the source of the voice.

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. First description. Here he's seen the Lord for the first time in over six decades.

Now, John saw the seven golden lampstands, which according to verse 20, because remember this is the place and we'll get there, verse 20 tells us this means this and this means this. According to verse 20 represents the seven churches. So people wonder, what do the lampstands mean? Verse 20 tells you that. It says exactly what it is. So if it sounds like, oh man, I can't figure out what that is, well it just says something.

It's the seven churches. John had been in contact with these believers in these churches, so we take it that these were on his heart and mind a great deal during his exile. John sees Christ in the midst of them all. Close to them. In the midst of them. Close to. Isn't this something? Christ is close to these seven churches.

Now, what did John see from the Greek description Here's Christ in the midst of these lamps. What does that mean? See the distinction there? What it looks like is you're standing with a bunch of lampstands around him. What it means is he's in the midst of and close to the seven churches, even on the heavenly scene. Yes. So were you saying that he didn't actually see seven lampstands, like physically present? Well here's the thing, when you start looking at these symbols, I think what you got to look at is he probably did see seven lampstands, but what did they mean is what came to his mind, not what does this all look like.

You see the difference there? Right. I wonder if he's writing, he says I saw something. That's what he said. But as he saw them, rather than just putting together, you know, here's what it looks like, although he describes it, his thinking is, what does this mean?

And verse 20 even tells you that's what he's thinking. I think it's also like anytime there's reference to God, it's usually He's in the center, and the angels are around Him, and the chariots are around Him. God is central and in the midst of every appearance we see here in the Book of Revelation. Thank you, that's a good point. describing this is what he looked like, and then he explains what the symbols mean. That's right.

He either is telling you what the symbols mean or is relying on well-established indications from Scripture as to what things mean. It is not a matter of us saying, well that makes me think of, or that feels like, or that seems like. He will either tell you what the things mean or what they mean will be spelled out in other scripture, if not in the context. So this is not really metaphoric?

This is, he is describing something that, like George was pointing out, he's spelling out, yeah this is what I saw, but I understand it this way. Right. The simile is like or as. And he's making a comparison there. But that's right. And I think the thing is, he is literally seeing these things. So I don't mean to mistake that. But when he looks at it, he's not just looking at the composite and saying, boy, that looks like a monstrosity. What he's looking at is he's saying, I see this and this and this. And these are what these things mean.

Either telling you directly what they mean. or relying on scripture itself to tell you what it means. Let's step our way through that. We don't insert what we think it means. We don't make guesses. Revelation 120 tells us it's the seven churches. So I'm not trying to, gee, I wonder what that means. I think it means this. Or it makes me think this. Or I feel like this. It's not subjective and guessing. It is objectively knowable in each case. He says there are one like a son of man.

That draws from Daniel 7.13. This is a reference to the Christ. By the way, there's a distinction that's made in Scripture in the New Testament that we often miss, and that is the Christ is referenced to the Messiah. The Messiah. In other words, it's a reference to the Jewish, because Christos, the word that we get Christ from, means anointed. Messiah means anointed. So, that the Christ is specifically the Messiah.

So, the Son of Man has that identification from Daniel 7.13. Christ also often called himself the Son of Man, right?

Referred to himself as the Son of Man in the Gospels, drawing upon that term from Daniel 7.13. The term Son of or Sons of in the Bible, and you'll run into this in the Old Testament and the New, When not referring to a genealogical son, it refers to being like in character or close in relationship. You'll find that term again and again. Sons of your father who is in heaven, or sons of disobedience are examples of that kind of usage.

Now, here's where it's interesting. The robe reaching to his feet. Now, do I have to guess about what that looks like? No. And the reason I don't have to guess is in the Old Testament, Garb, the high priest, and actually a lot of the other priests, had robes reaching their feet. Here's a reference to Exodus 28 and 39. The descriptions of what they're to wear, a robe reaching down to their feet. So again, if it doesn't tell you in the context, this means this, it's something well-established in Scripture and identifiable.

Christ, of course, ministers as our High Priest for now in the heavenlies. That's a theme from Hebrews chapter 2 all the way to chapter 10. So here is a different role for Christ than what we saw in His earthly ministry, and that is Christ acting as our High Priest. Christ acting as our High Priest.

You see him specifically in that garb. John had not seen that before. So this was a new role. And let's go to it, although we don't have time to study all those chapters in Hebrew in detail. What does it mean for Christ to be our High Priest? What does it mean for Him to be our High Priest?

Pardon? He is an advocate. Right, okay, good. That's one aspect of it. What else can we say about what does it mean for Christ to be our High Priest? He's an intermediary? Yes, He's an intermediary. In other words, He has access to and goes to the Father, right? So there is this continuing ministry as our High Priest. We have need of a high priest. We have need of a high priest. He has and holds that role even now. And here's John privileged to see him in the heavenly places taking on that role.

I was going to say, 1 John 1.7, the blood of Christ. And so, as the high priest, it's His blood. It's continually and forever forgiving. He is ministering as a high priest, not making sacrifices with lambs, but with whose blood?

His own. Isn't that amazing? So, Satan comes up and says, hey, I caught this Christian doing this. What does the Lord answer? I got that covered. Okay? I got that covered. Yeah. And so the Lord's position even with us now is dealing with the accuser. I've got that covered, he said. I shed the blood and I'm now here the high priest and that accusation isn't going to stick. Isn't that wonderful news? This is great news. This is wonderful news. Okay. So here Now we can take a look at page 3. This should be verse 14.

His head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. What do you notice repeatedly in that verse? Like, right? We're not talking valley girl talk here, right? Yeah, it's the like and as point that we made. And here it is again. It's not the first time we saw it in this passage, but now we see it here repeatedly. So the points of interpretation that we gave you earlier, here they come in rapid sequence. John writes about the description of Christ's head here, including here and I, as conveying Christ's character consistent with Jewish symbolism, okay?

Continuing his pattern, he uses the word like for points of comparison with things that his readers would understand. Regarding Christ's head and hair and their like, wool or snow being white, which shows both wisdom of age, and notice, why do I say wisdom of age? Did I just pull that out of the air? Did I just guess? No, we've got passages.

Here's Daniel 7.9, 13 and 22 in chapter 7. and Micah 5.2, as well as moral and spiritual purity, which is Isaiah 1.18, white as snow, sins be as scarlet, or as crimson, they shall be white as snow. So this comparison is not, I think it means this, pick me, pick me, but instead it's something straight out of Scripture. We made the point earlier that 70% of the book of Revelation is out of the Old Testament. Here's case in point right here. We've made references to Daniel and Isaiah and Micah and books like that.

About Christ's eyes, flames of fire having penetrating judgment. Here's 1 Corinthians and Romans being a couple places with passages there that talk about judgment coming from fire. By the end of the next verse, John's description of Christ will return to characteristics regarding features of his head. So what did we see?

Description of his head, Then down to his legs and his feet and then back up to his head is the pattern. Verse 15. 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 the sun shining in its strength. So in this verse, John describes five features of Christ conveying His character.

Okay, here's the thing I want you to get out of this. We're not just reading a book that says, hey, I know the future, I've got a biblical crystal ball. We're reading a book that tells you about Christ so that you can know Him. What is one characteristic of a believer in Christ, but that you know Him? You know Him.

And this is what this is about. This is not just, I've got a biblical crystal ball. This is not just, I know the future. This is, I'm getting to know Christ. That's what it's about. That's what's really neat about this, and one of the reasons I get really excited about Revelation. It is a revelation of Christ. It is a matter of knowing Him. It's not just prophetic study and now I know the future.

It's him. It's about him. So here's his character. Feet like the bronze in a furnace, molten metal signifying purity. This comes out of Exodus 38, 2-39. So that whole span of verses there. As well as being immovable and solid. The next one, a voice like many are rushing waters. And I give several references there in Psalms and Jeremiah and Revelation. And by the way, there are other verses, but this is just a sampling. So the idea of many waters.

Now, any of you have been to a really big waterfall? Anybody been to a really big waterfall? And what's the volume at the base of the waterfall? It's a crashing loud sound. Kind of a white noise, but intense. If you've ever been to anything like that. Waterfall, outflow of a large dam, anything like that. Or the other thing is really pounding waves of the ocean. All that has kind of a similar intense sound. Kind of almost overwhelming.

And so he makes that comparison, and it's straight out of several Old Testament passages, as well as he's going to continue to use this because John's a consistent writer. The right hand from the earliest books of the Old Testament, starting with Genesis, is the hand of power, authority, security, and blessing. Isn't it interesting, that combination of things? Power and authority, security and blessing. Why is it important to have those combined? Why is that a good combination to put together? Power and authority, security and blessing.

By the way, if you're concerned about your security as a believer, do you want that security held by something or somebody weak or with power? I guess you'd call that centralized control and management, right? Yeah, centralized control and management. In other words, you don't want the Lord to say, you know, I'll hold you securely, but I'll give it my best shot and we'll see how it goes.

We want to have security and power and know that that is great power and great authority, matter of fact, ultimate power and authority that's holding us securely. And along with that, He's at the right side of God. He's at the right side of God. So he's got the right hand plus the right position. It's the hand of power and authority and security and blessing. And again, this is not just, here are some facts I know about God. This is getting to know the Lord. This is Him. This is knowledge of Him.

From Christ's mouth comes a five foot long barbarian sword. This is not the word for sword used elsewhere. in the Bible and in almost every other context, the word used in every other context is the short Roman sword. Like, for example, the sword of the spirit. That's the short Roman sword. This one is the rumphia, a five foot long barbarian battle sword.

And by the way, that's when people were shorter too. Probably as tall as the sword. And the barbarian battle sword was swung like this. It was just gyroscope, you know, momentum type motion. Unlike the Roman sword where they went for accuracy and getting in there, this was hacking. This was massive judgment. So when the Lord comes, and we'll see this employed in chapter 19, when the Lord comes, He comes with great and powerful judgment.

And this use of the sword out of the mouth comes out of Isaiah 49.2. So there again, it's an Old Testament reference.

John 12.48 is another one, and then several references in Revelation here, all the way to chapter 19. By the way, chapter 19, where Christ at His second coming comes in judgment, is the last use of this rumpaiah. Never again does he get described with this word, with this sword. Here is the sword coming out of his mouth. Let's start back in the beginning.

How did God create everything? He spoke it into existence, right? The Lord has power and intelligence in what he says. As it is expressed, it's done. And that's the same way the judgment is to be carried out, and we'll see that explicitly in chapter 19 when we get there. So the significance is as the Lord speaks it, it happens, it takes place. The Lord doesn't have to go in there and do this and do that with his hands. What he speaks, just as when he created, what he speaks is done.

And it's done with power and potency and intelligence. So now you begin to think about John, thinking, wow, I haven't seen the Lord for over six decades. He's almost unquestionably in great awe. As a matter of fact, we're going to get a very strong sense of that pretty soon here. Let's look at the last page, which is flip side, now that we're double-sided here, page four. So here's John's response, having seen the Lord for the first time.

And by the way, how did the disciples respond when Christ ascended from the Mount of Olives over 60 years earlier? How did the disciples respond, the guys who were soon to be apostles sent out? Would they sit there and and watched him, right? They watched him go up into the sky.

Is that what John does here? He sees and he describes what he sees, but what's his first description of his response? Whoa. He is overwhelmed by what he sees. Overwhelmed by what he sees. 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 I have the keys of death and Hades." John says that he fell at Christ's feet as a dead man. We have references there to Ezekiel and Daniel doing the same thing. Again, remember we said 70% of Revelation is out of the Old Testament? Case in point, this is the first time that John had seen Christ for over six decades. Given the description of Christ, John was so overwhelmed that he fell at his feet as if dead. What are some of the things that might have overwhelmed John?

Can you think of just some of the descriptions and what are some of the things that might have just kind of floored him? picture is really descriptive of Patmos because, you know, it's quiet, it's serene, not a lot of things happening there except possibly the ocean and that's what he's been used to for a period of time.

Yeah. I think the contrast. Yeah, yeah, a great contrast. What were some of the intense things about what he saw about Christ? Okay, well, yeah, huge noise. It wasn't like, hey, that's a little noisy. We're talking massive, overwhelming noise. Things compared to trumpet blasts. many waters, you know, like this thundering waterfall, okay? What else? Brightness. Intense brightness.

It's like, wow man, I can't even absorb that. This morning I got up and, you know, Chris, what I'm usually trying to do is get my message ready and I got this big screen, you know, and first thing, I can't even look at the screen. Well, we're talking a whole lot more intense than that and something, he apparently just doesn't adjust to, okay? And so this intensity of sound and light, this is overwhelming stuff. He is so overwhelmed, he says, I can't take this all in.

Boom! I'm down. Also the fact that he's alone. All this time, now, he's visited. Okay? Yeah. He spent a lot of time in solitude, a lot of time, like you mentioned, in a quiet place. So now you've got this contrast. Here's somebody who comes and everything about the sound and sight of this Lord that he sees, unlike the Lord ascending in heaven and getting smaller and smaller, here is the Lord in front of him, the ascended and seated Lord, now in front of him, and everything, all the inputs are overwhelming. Okay? What he sees, too much. What he hears, too much.

Yeah, Ruth? Wouldn't it also be that seeing all this and hearing the voice and all the sound and everything be, oh, now I understand. I have better understanding now of what happened way back then. Therefore, I'm going to bow because I do understand. Yeah. Yeah, well, let's think about that. He is seeing the Lord for the first time. Let's revisit that. He's grown in the Lord over the years. So he has a better understanding of who Christ is and his relationship with Christ. Yeah, let's talk about that. Did the disciples gain understanding as the years went by? Yes, they did.

We find Paul the Apostle, not a believer, when Christ was crucified, at the end of Acts, just right after that time when he wrote Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians, that's where he wrote about, for the first time, you have a heavenly citizenship. You are seated in the heavenlies. And so here you find the apostles learning about the Lord in the process. Now John sees the Lord for the first time in over six decades.

And he sees with a new perspective, doesn't he? A very special perspective. So here we go. Here's Christ again. We are not just reading about, you know, I've got a Biblical But I am learning about the Lord, because it's not just about, I'm getting to know Him by reading these words. And what do we see here? Do not be afraid. That also was said to Daniel, by the way.

Again, we have Old Testament reference. I am the first and the last. We saw that last week. Who said that last week? In the first eight verses. Who said I'm the first and the last? God. And now Christ says it. What does that say? Who does that say Christ is? God. Deity. Right? By the way, some of the folks who come knocking at your door, two by two, they need to know that. Okay.

And again, we make reference to Isaiah 44.6, which is a pivotal one there. I was dead and I'm alive. Who's that? That's Jesus, right? And this isn't just a Lazarus kind of a life. He's alive on the heavenly scene here. Alive with a new kind of life, not just Lazarus who came back to this one. Okay? I was dead of a life.

Speaks of his death and resurrection. Here was John who was a personal witness of Christ as he died. Remember, John was one that was there. How do we know John was there on the day that the Lord was crucified? Right. And what did the Lord say to John? This is my mother. Take care of her, basically. You take care of her.

John was there. And then, when the women went to the tomb, and the tomb was empty, one of them came to where the disciples were, and who were the first two disciples to come running up to the Peter and John. So here's John who was one of the two male witnesses to come up and say, man, he isn't here. This place is empty. Wow. So here's John.

He'd seen the death and he'd seen the resurrection. He also saw the resurrected Christ numerous times. So when Christ says, I was dead and I'm alive, John says, yeah, I know. I know. I witnessed these things. Imagine how deeply and profoundly he was impacted by these things. Yeah, I know. But your aliveness is just amazing. Yes?

Have they ever just kind of speculated what the weight of the rock would have been that was blocking the entrance to the Oh, I'm sure some numbers come up with, I don't know off the top of my head. It's fairly substantial, but also doable by one or two men. I would say it's probably doubtful. Aside from the fact that it has a Roman seal on it. With a death penalty on it. I have a question about the rabbit trail. Oh, I love rabbit trails. Yeah.

Was that the form that Christ had prior to taking on humanity? Did he have the same roles? He was here showing up before John as the God-man. Because remember, when did he take on humanity? When was that? When he was born. When he was actually conceived, he took on humanity. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, he took on humanity. What you have before you here is the resurrected forever God-man. That's right. That's right. Pre-incarnate Christ.

Daniel did not see the same person, if you will, that John did. And the difference is, Daniel did not see the God-man, because Christ had not been born of Mary. As yet, now he has been born of Mary and died and resurrected to a new life. What about the symbolism of the things you were reading, the two-edged sword and the feet like bronze and so on and so forth, those all characteristics of Christ prior to Not yet. Not yet because he was not given all power and authority and he did not have the position from which to be all these things. He couldn't say I was dead and I'm alive to Daniel.

This relates to image and likeness. Because in Philippians and Colossians it talks about Christ coming in the likeness of man But then it goes on to describe his holiness and his character and all the other things of God and that would be the image of God. So this is a very interesting question because when man dies he's going to have a glorified body. And since Christ was in the likeness of man, this body is totally different than what he was before. What does John write?

We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. That's a fascinating thing to look at, is the Christ that John saw, though we see things going back to the Old Testament, the Christ that John saw was not the same one as any Old Testament figure. So, yeah, that's right. And thanks for bringing that up. That's really valuable.

The next one here, he says, not only am I alive and dead, but now I also have the keys of death and Hades. He says, now I have power. And this is something that he couldn't say to Daniel, right? Because he had not been resurrected. So this is a different Christ, a different Messiah, if you will, than what Daniel personally saw, than who Daniel personally saw. Death and Hades, or the place of the dead, no longer hold the power within themselves. Christ has charge now, having overcome death. I hold the key. Keys, by the way, were a far more complex, pronged mechanism and device than what we have, but nonetheless it's similar in function.

Verse 19, Therefore write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. Here's the three-verse outline. You have it on that chart on the back there. What are the things which you have seen? That's the things here in Revelation chapter 1. You've seen them here.

And then the things which are, those are the things that describe the present state of the churches, which is chapters 2 and 3. And Kurt's going to introduce those for us here starting this next week. And then the things which will take place after these things, that's chapters 4 through 22. So there's the three part outline given in 119 there. The phrase after these things conveys historical sequence and reality. You've got a listing of after these things as another appendix item. Here, after these things or after this.

And John uses the word, I would say, rather uniquely in that he uses it in a prophetic sense. The idea is historical reality and sequence is what's conveyed by those words. Starts all the way back in the Old Testament and Genesis. Verse 20, and here's the explanation we referred to earlier.

As for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. By the way, who's saying this? Christ himself is saying this, okay? The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. We'll talk more in greater detail later about what we mean by angels. Basically, the word is angelos, which means messengers. The messengers to the seven churches.

And that verse is given there just as definition by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We're going to see that syncopation starts in the chapter 2, verse 1, that Kurt will begin for us. Let's take us right back down into the earthly scene for chapters 2 and 3. That's the syncopation that goes on between these two places that you see throughout the book of Revelation. Alright. We've covered a lot of territory. We've said a lot of things. Any more thoughts, comments, exasperations? Inspirations? Is this making some sense? Does this make any sense? Yes.

So can you extrapolate the seven stars for those seven churches to be inclusive of the entire church age? We're going to talk about what those mean. My inclination is not to go in the direction of that being a prophecy about the church age, but specifically about those churches. Kurt's going to go over that in more detail and I don't want to, as a matter of fact, I don't recall all the things offhand. I don't have the time for it. He'll cover that in more detail.

But that idea was first presented around the year 1200 by the Franciscans, which is a Roman Catholic group. And what's strange is that it has been carried forward since then, and no matter who has the idea, they always stretch out the church age so that they're the last ones. The Franciscans thought that they lived in the Laodicean age. The people who thought, well, no, that's something else and they stretched out the time several centuries later, they thought they were in the lot with the C&H.

So no matter who's interpreting it with that approach, And no matter how many centuries have gone by, they always seem to interpret it there in the loud C and H. I was thinking more about the fact that Christ is in the center of those seven churches. Yes. He's actually in the center of the church age as well.

Well, I think the thing is, in those churches, Where I think the value for us to take from it is, as we go through them, because Kurt's going to introduce those to you at least, as we go through them, here's the question I think to think of, as we read the messages to the seven churches, and they're really messages rather than letters, as we read those messages, how much of that applies to us? Because I think that's the take-home value. Again, make it personal. is, if the Lord were writing a letter to the people at Holly Hills, what would he say? And how much of what's in those letters would fit for us? So, and again, it's a matter of, this isn't just hypothetical, it's valuable, I think, and important to make it personal. We're way out of time, so we've got to quit, even though it's just great. But let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that as we've looked at this heavenly scene, what we have seen is you. And this is not just, oh boy, now we get to look into the crystal ball, but it is indeed knowing you, the one who, as we saw earlier in Chapter 1, the one who is constantly loving us.

This is His ministry. This is who He is. This is because of His coming to earth and His being born of Mary and dying on the cross and being resurrected and ascended. This is who He is. And as we've seen in other passages, this is also an introduction to who we have become as well because we believed. Thank you for this precious and deep passage, and we look with anticipation as to where this goes next. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.