Everything we have in life, as Christians, we have in and through Jesus. Jesus is the one who rescued us from death, and sin, and slavery. Our sins are forgiven through his blood. Through him, we become part of God's family, and have access to God. Through him, we receive the Holy Spirit. So part of our natural response to all of this, is that we spend a lot of time thinking about Jesus, talking about Jesus, talking to Jesus, and worshipping Jesus. We don't do any of this exclusively. We don't lift up Jesus over the Spirit or the Father. But we absolutely lift up Jesus.
Now, when we do all of this, my guess is that most of us have a picture of Jesus in our minds. How do we picture him, today? What does he look like?
Several years ago, there was a Fox news anchor, Megyn Kelly, who became famous for reassuring her viewers that Jesus was, verifiably, a white male. And lots of people had a lot of fun interacting with her. Someone-- maybe Jon Stewart, or Stephen Colbert-- mockingly echoed her words. How could anyone forget that Jesus looked like your typical white-skinned, blue-eyed, Middle Eastern Jew?
I think what this segment showed, along with all the reactions to it, are that most people have a picture in their minds of Jesus. It's maybe not fully developed. They maybe aren't aware of what they're doing. But they have some picture. And that picture has become a part of how they view Jesus, and interact with Jesus.
In today's passage, Revelation 1:9-20, John sees Jesus for who he is. Now, this picture is in some ways symbolic, and not to be pressed literally. But if we take this picture seriously, while respecting its partially symbolic imagery, it will change us in all kinds of ways. It will change how we worship Jesus, how we pray. It will change how we understand what we are doing, when we lay hands on people in Jesus' name. And it will also change how we view the kingdoms of this world. So I think this picture is foundational, in many ways.
Let's start our passage by simply reading verse 9:
(9) I, John-- your brother and partner in the affliction and in the kingdom and in the steadfastness in Jesus-- I was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God
and the testimony about Jesus.
In verse 9, John begins by directly addressing his readers. He starts by describing himself, not in terms of any authority, or position, but by highlighting their shared connections with him. He is, first of all, their brother. In Christ, the people he is addressing are family. They are also his partners in three ways. (1) They suffer together. (2) They are in God's kingdom together. And (3) they are steadfastly faithful together. Specifically, this faithfulness revolves around evangelism. John is in exile on this island for telling people about Jesus. So this partnership between John and the churches runs deep. It includes the privileges that come with following Jesus, and it includes the hard parts of following.
This is a verse that really resonates with me. When you meet someone new, and find out they are a committed disciple of Jesus, you find that you have this instant connection with them. That person is truly your brother or sister in Christ. You know you have a shared identity, and a shared struggle ("tribulations"), and a shared purpose in life.
John then goes on, still in verse 9, to tell his readers where he was, when all of this happened to him. He was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. He was exiled on Patmos, as a result of his faithful service to God, and to Jesus.
When we read verse 9, I think it does two things to us. The first, is that it makes something rise up inside of us, that wants to live like John. And the second, is that it increases our respect for John. John isn't the kind of Christian who hangs his head in shame when someone talks about evangelism. He didn't keep his mouth shut, when conversations with coworkers or neighbors turns to religious stuff. John made the decision, that he would openly tell everyone about God and Jesus, regardless of what it cost him. John's faithfulness has been battle-tested. And that's how he ended up in exile, far away from everyone and everything. And his willingness to do this, regardless of the cost, makes John someone worth listening to. When battle-tested Christians speak, you listen carefully, and take their words seriously.
Verse 10:
(10) I was in/with the Spirit on the Lord's day,
Let's pause here, actually. What does it mean to be "in/with the Spirit"?
My guess is that many charismatic Christians instinctively find themselves reading this, and thinking about praying in tongues here. Charismatic Christians will tell you that when you pray in tongues, that you have this spirit-Spirit connection with God. Your spirit connects with the Holy Spirit in a powerful, intimate way.
I've still never prayed in tongues, so I'm not sure what to say about that. I think that's true. This is something I still pray for. But it's something I can only point you toward, and encourage you to seek, without really offering you anything more than that.
All of that said, I think being "in the Spirit" is bigger than praying in tongues. Or, maybe, there's more than one way to be "in the Spirit." I think there's a place in prayer, where you quietly position yourself before God, where you draw near to God, and God draws near to you. You reach out to God, and God reaches out to you. Find that place, and you will be aware of God's presence with you. Through your spirit, you connect to the Holy Spirit. In that place, you might talk to God. God might talk to you. Or you might simply rest in his presence. But that's how I would explain being "in," or "with," the Holy Spirit. I think, on top of this, that there's probably a way to carry this place with you throughout the day. But it's easiest to do this, especially at first, in a quiet place.
Now, if you have some other way that you are "in," or "with" the Spirit, I'm certainly not going to tell you that you're doing it wrong. If you find yourself wanting to add something to this, I'd love to have a conversation with you about it. But I think verses like this show that there's a lot more to prayer than some of us were raised to believe.
So John is in/with the Spirit on the Lord's day-- which is Sunday. It's not Saturday. It's not the Sabbath. It's Sunday.
And then he hears something. Verse 11:
(11) and I heard behind me a great sound like a trumpet, saying,
"What you see, write in a book,
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,"
So John hears is this overwhelming sound. In power, it's like the strongest of brass instruments-- the trumpet. And he's told that he will receive visions, that he is to record, and send them to seven churches in Asia. He will see something that's for them.
Now, there were a lot more than seven churches in Asia at that time. So why these seven? The number seven has symbolic significance. It's a number that symbolizes wholeness, and completeness, and perfection. So basically everyone agrees that seven literal first century churches are addressed, but they also agree that this is a number that reaches beyond those seven, to the church as a whole. And as we get into the book, we will see that everyone is encouraged to "hear" what John "sees" as a message for them. So as we read, we will see that there is a balance we need to find between understanding that these words are first of all, to these seven churches, but they are also addressed to the larger church.
Verse 12-16:
(12) and I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me,
and, turning, I saw seven gold lampstands,
(13) and in the middle of the lampstands, one similar to a son of man, [Daniel 7:13; 10:16]
dressed in a robe reaching to his feet, [Daniel 10:5]
and girded around his chest [with] a golden belt, [Daniel 10:5]
(14) now, his head and his hair [were] white like wool-- white like snow-- [Daniel 7:9; 1 Enoch 46:1]
and his eyes [were] like a fiery flame, [Daniel 10:6]
(15) and his feet [were] like fine bronze, like in a furnace having been burned, [Daniel 10:6]
and his voice [was] like the sound of many waters, [Daniel 10:6; Ezekiel 1:24; 43:2]
(16) and he had in his right hand seven stars,
and from his mouth a sharp double-edged sword coming out, [Isaiah 11:4]
and his face like the sun shines in/with his power ("like the sun" is focused), [Ezekiel 1:28]
The one who John sees, is hard to describe. He's "similar" to a son of man. His head and hear and eyes and feet and voice and face are "like" things. But if you take this description as a whole, the overall impression is that this Being, is one of overwhelming glory, and power. We could unpack each of these details. We could talk about how bronze is a unique metal, for the way it combines power and beauty. We could talk about how his' eyes, when he sees you, burn through you. And we can talk about the sword coming out of his mouth.
At some point, if we do this, we run into two pitfalls. The first, is that we begin to press the symbolic language of Revelation beyond what we should. Jesus doesn't have a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, literally. The picture starts to look like a caricature, if we press.
The second pitfall, is that we lose sight of the overall impression. This picture is like impressionistic art. You take it all in at once. You let it hit your imagination, and move you. You don't scientifically inspect it.
Now, if you look at my translation, you'll see that I have a number of OT references in brackets, on almost every line. What John sees here builds on the OT, but it does so in a surprising way. This is a good example of how what John sees isn't a simple fulfillment of the OT. It's adapts, and builds on, the OT. I could spend a week unpacking this, but I'd encourage you to read from Daniel 7 and Daniel 10 later today. Read those two chapters, and you'll see that this powerful being in Revelation 1 sounds an awful lot like three persons. Read in light of Daniel 7, this one sounds like the Ancient of Days-- God himself--, as well as one like a son of man. Read in light of Daniel 10, this one sounds like the mysterious man dressed in linen. But this is very obviously no ordinary man.
Verse 17-18:
(17) and when I saw him, I fell toward his feet like a dead person, [Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 1:28; Daniel 8:18]
and he put his right hand on me, saying [Daniel 10:18],
"Don't fear!
I am the First and the Last, and The One Living, [Isaiah 44:6; 48:12; Joshua 3:10]
and I was dead,
and LOOK! Living, I am, forever and ever,
and I have the keys of death and of Hades/the Netherworld.
Who is this one?
It's Jesus, in all of his glory. Jesus is the one who died, and came to life, forever. Last week, we read about how God is the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z. Here, Jesus describes himself in a similar way. He is the First and the Last. He is the Living One.
When Christians think about who Jesus is, my guess is that they have wildly different pictures in their minds. Some like thinking about baby Jesus in a manger. Some like thinking about Jesus going around, doing good, to all of Judea. Some focus on Jesus as a teacher. Some Christians think about Jesus on the cross.
It's perfectly okay to look back on Jesus' life. But when we think about who Jesus is now, the picture we need to settle on should look like a lot like what we see here in Revelation 1 (along with later pictures in Revelation, like Revelation 5; 19:11-21). Jesus is glorious one, who has been around, and will be around, forever. He is the one who defeated humans' worst enemies, in death and Hades. All of us, probably, will eventually die. But since Jesus has the keys to death and Hades, that won't be the end of our story. Jesus will use his key to free us from both, and we will echo Jesus' words-- "We were dead, and look! We are alive."
So when we sing songs as a church directed to Jesus, know that this is who you are worshipping.
And Jesus here, is someone who John doesn't need to fear. Jesus could very easily be terrifying. He is powerful, and glorious, and heavily armed. But Jesus isn't enemies with John. And Jesus isn't showing up to fight John.
Why is Jesus revealing himself to John? Verses 19:
(19) And so then, write what you saw, [Revelation 1:11]
and what is about to happen after these things.
Jesus now tells John for a second time (verse 11), that he wants John to write a book. Jesus is going to give John a revelation, mostly through giving him visions. And when John receives these visions, he can be confident that they are from Jesus. They aren't his imagination. They aren't daydreams. They are true, symbolic, pictures of the near future.
With this, we come to verse 20:
(20) The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my hand, and the seven gold lampstands--
the seven stars, angels of the seven churches, they are, ["angels...churches" is focused]
and the seven lampstands, the seven churches, they are. ["seven churches" is focused]
There were a lot of details in this picture of Jesus we saw that we could try to unpack. But the only ones that are focused on, are the seven stars in Jesus' hands, and the seven lampstands. And so that's where we should focus, as well.
So when we look at Jesus' right hand, we see seven stars, which symbolically represent the angels of the seven churches.
There's a lot of debate about who these angels are, and what their function is. I'm not completely settled on this, but let me offer you one that I'm leaning toward (I'm following Mitchell Reddish and Ian Boxall here, and I'd have to unpack this better for people who aren't familiar with my "Sons of God" series).
Let's turn to Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (and the translation matters here, have to use NRSV or ESV, not NIV:
8 When the Most High[b] apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;[c]
9 the LORD’s own portion was his people,
Jacob his allotted share.
The idea in the OT, is that Yahweh, the God of Israel, delegates responsibility for the nations to his heavenly family. God has an earthly family, and a heavenly family. He gives the responsibility for running the nations to the sons of God, while He takes the nation of Israel for himself.
Now let's turn to Daniel 10:10-14 (NRSV updated no reason):
10 But then a hand touched me and roused me to my hands and knees. 11 He said to me, “Daniel, greatly beloved, pay attention to the words that I am going to speak to you. Stand on your feet, for I have now been sent to you.” So while he was speaking this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 He said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me twenty-one days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia[b] 14 and have come to help you understand what is to happen to your people at the end of days. For there is a further vision for those days.”
What we see in this passage, is a little hint of how this all played out. Daniel 10 describes a prince of Persia, who is not a human, but is a divine being, or you could say a "son of God," who is responsible for the nation of Persia. This son of God resists God. He's not a faithful son. He's not a faithful servant, of what God gave him. He pushes back, and successfully fights God's purposes. But then the speaker here, who many people think is Gabriel, gets help from another son of God, Michael. Michael takes up this fight with the prince of Persia, which leaves the speaker free to go tell Daniel God's plans.
So in the OT, God picks out patron angel (better, would be "patron son of God" probably] to watch over different people groups, to protect, and lead, and help them.
I think what we are seeing in Revelation, is that God does something similar for churches. Every time a church is born, God appoints an angel for that church, who is responsible for that church. And that angel serves as a representative for that church in heaven [in much the same way as the sons of God present themselves before God in Job 1 and 2]. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else to say. I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers. But I think that's the best explanation for this.
So what does it mean, to say that the seven angels of the seven churches are in Jesus' right hand? What's the significance of this symbolism?
I think it shows that the angels serve Jesus. They are under his authority. Jesus is greater than the angels, and he rules over them.
It also means, by extension, that the same thing is true for the seven churches. The churches serve Jesus. They are under his authority. He rules over them. He protects them. Their fate is in his hands.
If we are living faithfully, this is a comfort. We are in the right hand of One whose eyes are like flames, who looks like the Ancient of Days from Daniel, who is strong, and powerful, and glorious, and heavily armed.
And if we are a church that's struggling with faithlessness, this should make us nervous. Jesus' eyes burn through our excuses, and self-justifications, and expose the truth of who we are. Our fate, for good or bad, is up to Jesus.
At this point, let's unpack the second piece of symbolism, with the lampstands. Let's read part of verses 12-13, and then the last line of verse 20:
(12) and I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me,
and, turning, I saw seven gold lampstands,
(13) and in the middle of the lampstands, one similar to a son of man,
(20) and the seven lampstands, the seven churches, they are. ["seven churches" is focused]
The idea here, is that Jesus stands in the midst of the churches. Jesus is here, in our midst. And not just here exclusively, but at every other true church as well. If Jesus is in our midst, then we don't go through the hard things in life alone (h/t Mitchell Reddish). Jesus is with us, every step of our way. He sees us. He fights for us. He protects us. That doesn't mean we won't suffer, or even die. But if we die for Jesus, we know that He has the keys to Death and Hades. Death is no prison for us. We won't be trapped in the underworld, in Sheol. Jesus will get us out.
So that's our passage today.
Let me just leave you, thinking about two things. The first, is about "being in the Spirit." There's a place you can find, where you quiet yourself down, and reach out to God in your spirit. Your spirit, and the Holy Spirit, link up. And you can rest in that place, "in the Spirit." Maybe you pray out loud. Maybe you simply sit, in God's presence.
What happens at that point, isn't necessarily up to you.
Now, I'm guessing that there's a way to carry this place with you throughout the day. That's a struggle for me, to live "in/with the Spirit." It's easier in a quiet place.
If you've never experienced this, and have no idea what I'm talking about, this is something worth pressing in to. If it doesn't seem to "work," be persistent. Don't get frustrated. Enjoy the process, and enjoy the journey.
So that's thing #1. Thing #2 I'd like to leave you with, is a picture of Jesus.
Last week, in Revelation 1:5, we saw that Jesus is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kingdoms of the earth. He is the one who loves us, in an ongoing (imperfective tense) way. He's the one who has made us into a kingdom of priests to serve his God. He does this, as One who has co-existed with God from the beginning. He does this, as one who is glorious, powerful, and heavily armed.
If we are faithful, Jesus is for us, not against us. He is with us, in our midst. He fights for us. He protects us. He has the key, that makes sure that we get home safe.
If we are faithful, Jesus isn't someone we need to fear. The nations need to fear. Those who are outside his kingdom need to fear. But we do not. When we see this picture of Jesus, we rejoice. Jesus is our champion.
Translation:
(9) I, John-- your brother and partner in the affliction and in the kingdom and in the steadfastness in Jesus-- I was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God
and the testimony about Jesus.
(10) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,
and I heard behind me a great sound like a trumpet, saying,
"What you see, write in a book,
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,"
(15) and I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me,
and, turning, I saw seven gold lampstands,
(13) and in the middle of the lampstands, one similar to a son of man, [Daniel 7:13]
dressed in a robe reaching to his feet, [Daniel 10:5]
and girded around his chest [with] a golden belt, [Daniel 10:5]
(14) now, his head and his hair [were] white like wool-- white like snow-- [Daniel 7:9; 1 Enoch 46:1]
and his eyes [were] like a fiery flame, [Daniel 10:6]
(15) and his feet [were] like fine bronze, like in a furnace having been burned, [Daniel 10:6]
and his voice [was] like the sound of many waters, [Daniel 10:6; Ezekiel 1:24; 43:2]
(16) and he had in his right hand seven stars,
and from his mouth a sharp double-edged sword coming out, [Isaiah 11:4; Isaiah 49:2]
and his face like the sun shines in/with his power ("like the sun" is focused), [Ezekiel 1:28]
(17) and when I saw him, I fell toward his feet like a dead person, [Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 1:28; Daniel 8:18]
and he put his right hand on me, saying,
"Don't fear!
I am the First and the Last, and The One Living, [Isaiah 44:6; 48:12; Joshua 3:10]
and I was dead,
and LOOK! Living, I am, forever and ever,
and I have the keys of death and of Hades/the Netherworld.
(19) And so then, write what you saw,
and what is about to happen after these things.
(20) The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my hand, and the seven gold lampstands--
the seven stars, angels of the seven churches, they are, ["angels...churches" is focused]
and the seven lampstands, the seven churches, they are. ["seven churches" is focused]
