A Vision Of Christ

A vision of Christ

Revelation 1:9-20

Michael H. Koplitz

In the Scripture that we read this morning, we have the first imagery that we will find inside of the book of Revelation. We have here John reporting to us a vision of Jesus Christ that came to him while he was on the island of Patmos. We are told in this vision that Christ is holding seven stars in his hand and that seven lamp posts are surrounding Him. The mystery of the seven stars is that each one represents the angel of each of the seven churches. The lampstands represent the seven churches receiving letters from John that Christ instructs him to write.

In the Bible, the number seven is used many times to indicate the completeness of all people. The number seven, in this case, is not just seven letters going to the seven churches in Asia minor but rather letters that can pertain to all the churches of Jesus Christ both then and now. It is essential to realize that even though each letter is directed to an angel at each church, Christ intends for these letters to be shared among all churches. These are timeless letters that talk about problems occurring in the first-century churches and about things that can happen to any Church at any time. The letters also contain complements to each of the churches for their faith and endurance during very hard times.

The seven churches spoken of in these following two chapters somewhat formed a circle inside of Asia minor (what we call Turkey today). These seven cities were approximately 30 miles apart. They were connected by the main Roman road they built in Asia Minor. Also, each of the cities contained a Roman court of law. It is important that when Roman citizens were accused of being Christians, they would be charged and tried in a Roman court. It is interesting that churches formed in cities that had Roman courts.

The seven lampstands represent the seven churches. This is a good image for the church because we are told in John’s gospel that Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus told us and especially His churches, to be a light to the world. So you can see that the imagery of a lampstand, which gives off light, is a good representation of Christ's churches.

The seven stars represent the seven angels of the churches. But if we look deeply into the actual Greek text, we find that the word being used about the angels is “angelos.” This word means messenger. The primary use for this word is when one was speaking about messengers from God. The English word angel is derived from this Greek word. The seven stars could represent the messengers that are the Episcopal leader of each of those churches. They would have been considered messengers from God. It was believed at that time that a guardian angel existed for each of the churches. So you can decide who the messenger was.

Then we have John’s vision of Christ. We know that this is a vision of Christ because, in verse 18, the vision speaks to John and says that he is the living one who was dead and is now alive and holds the keys of death and hell. The image that Johns sees identifies itself as Jesus Christ. However, the image does not use the name Jesus but instead gives descriptive language that we found and talked about last week, which comes earlier in chapter one. The resurrection formula given to John about Jesus is that He is the living one who was dead and now live forever and ever.

So we want to spend our time today looking at the Christ image and seeing what we can learn from that description. One area that is quite interesting to look at is that the Scripture says in verse 16 that out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. At the sermon Roundtable, we were pondering what exactly Christ was trying to tell John and us. The double edged sword coming out of Christ's mouth represents the Word of God.

Through this imagery, we can tell that the Word of God is essential. Do you see the Scripture of any value to you today? Obviously, to Christ, the Word of God was so important that he placed it into an image that John would understand. So let's look into God's Word to see if God tells us what value his Word has for us. To do this, we will look at some Christian Scripture passages. Let’s start with Matthew chapter four, verse four. The best place to start to see the value of Scripture is to see what our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said about it.