Number 10, the Apostle John says this, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write the book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. As you come to the Word of God this morning, we are confronted with wonderful truths. We have before us a remarkable and wonderful book, the book of the Revelation. And yet the book of the Revelation can be a daunting book for us to consider. There is a lot of symbolism in this book. There are many pictures and prophecies. It doesn't read like a narrative or a story, perhaps. So you don't find there's a beginning, a middle, and the end. And yet at the same time, it does read like that, if we understand it appropriately. It is a prophetic book and requires careful interpretation. And so we must be careful how we interpret the things that we have before us. there can be some degree of apprehension because of the fanciful deductions that folks have come to and that they draw upon. And because of that error that has been propagated, we can feel hesitant coming to such pages and passages. And so there can be a reticence on our behalf to come to the book of the Revelation. But that said, That position of being hesitant and reluctant to come and to consider the book of the revelation isn't one that we can truly justify. Because what we have before us are not the words of men, not the words of an apostle or even an angel, but rather this is the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we cannot just hold up our hands and say it's all too hard. It's all too difficult, too complicated, and we move on to something more easy to grapple with. These are the words of our Savior. These are the words of the one who has given himself for us. These are the words of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Therefore, our attention is required. This book contains the last word in the scripture of Christ to this world, and specifically to his church. Now when we consider the words that we use, they are always significant. The scriptures teach a lot about our tongue, our lips, and the words that issue from our mouth. We have exhortations such as being those that ought to be swift to hear and slow to speak. One Puritan commented that we have twice as many ears to hear as we do of mouths to speak. Therefore, we should hear twice as much as we speak. Another Puritan talking about the tongue encourages his readers to use a God-given gift that God has given to us, our teeth. And so if our tongues are about to say something foolish or unhelpful, unkind, then to use those teeth with all of our might to bite down upon that tongue. In other words, we have to be very careful about what we say. And when you think about the very last words that a person will utter, they are hugely significant as well. They often reveal to us the real person. Often I have the privilege to be at the bedside of a dear saint just before they enter into glory. And more than once, on many occasions, those saints have uttered those words, I just want to go home. And there reveals to me that they are going to be with their saviour. Those words can be very revealing as to the state of the heart. And the Book of the Revelation are the last words of Christ to his church. But unlike our words that we use, every word that Christ uttered, whether they were his first, throughout his ministry, after his resurrection, or indeed here in the book of the Revelation, they are hugely important for us. Because the one that is uttering those words is the King of glory, the Lord of hosts. There are no ill-placed comments, no flippant remarks, no slips of the tongue, no ill-advised placement of words. This is one who speaks with authority. In his earthly ministry it was commented that he spake like no other man had spoken. And so our attention today is to hear what Christ would say unto us. And therefore we have to be careful how we hear. We have in these words, in verse number three, blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Our attention is called today to hear and to consider the word of Christ. Furthermore, there is a blessing and there is a curse for those who hear the word of God. There is a blessing to those that read it and keep it, and there is a curse upon any that would add to it or would subtract it. We have to be careful we don't fall into the trap of adding things to the scriptures or reading things into the text that aren't there. and to be those who also have to be careful about not conveniently removing or ignoring or subtracting from the text as well. There is a severe judgment upon those who do such things as we read of in the very last chapter of this book. May we be those who have that blessing this morning. Coming back to the Apostle John and these words, I was in the Spirit of the Lord's Day, I want us to think something of the details of why he was there, what happened, his desire, secondly, and thirdly, the discovery that was given unto him whilst he was there, isolated on that isle of Patmos, and when the Lord Jesus Christ came and revealed himself unto him. The details. Why was John here, and how did he receive it, and what did he see? Well, over the last few weeks, we've been thinking about texts of comfort in these troubling times. And since last we met in this way, last Lord's Day, many hundreds and thousands have been ushered into eternity. Day on day increases of fatalities from this coronavirus. The pandemic is sweeping through our land, through Europe and throughout this world. And more and more families are being affected by this devastating loss. I saw a very poignant photograph last night. You may have seen it as well, the photograph of a 13-year-old who had sadly died of coronavirus. And all his family are showing symptoms of the disease, and so they were prevented from attending his funeral. And so at his funeral, all there was was the undertakers, dressed in full personal protection equipment, lowering his body into the grave. Very pregnant, very sad. This week has seen a number of the saints of God ushered into his kingdom. And we know that these things are becoming closer to home. And we know of people that are suffering at this time with coronavirus. and we can feel very troubled, we can feel very anxious, we can feel overwhelmed. When's it going to stop? When's it going to come to an end? We can be completely overwhelmed by these things. And so it's important that we have a right perspective on what we are seeing and ensuring that our hope and our gaze is fixed upon one that is unchangeable and we are those who are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That is where our gaze must be. As we look at the recipients of this revelation, it was John, the Apostle John, now aged well into advanced years. Perhaps some 60 years have passed since he's still on that hillside watching his savior ascending back into glory. Giving those words, or being given those words by the angels that he would come again. And there he is, perhaps each day, each week, looking out for that anticipation of his return. But here he is as an old man, experiencing difficulties and trials. You see that John isn't enjoying his retirement. He's not being careful in some care home for apostles, John is there in active duty. For his Saviour, he's still there, working and labouring for his Master, but not where he wants to be, not where he intended to be. John is here on this island called Patmos. He's there for the Word of God and for the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is there because of the consequence of his love and devotion to his Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ. Panos was an island, a small hilly enclave about 50 miles from Ephesus. It had a military garrison, and it was a place of athletic competitions and boasts of a temple to the God of Artemis. And John is here banished. In 1864, and then in the 1890s, the church experienced severe and brutal persecutions. When you read about those persecutions the church faced and what those emperors did, those Caesars did, it shows to you something of the depravity of man, of what the human heart is capable of. And you think, could you discover the ways in which there were plans and determinations made as to how could they come up and conjure up ideas as to how to make torture more and more unpleasant, more and more painful, and make those deaths for those believers so very hard. The Caesars that lived during those times are infamous, with their persecutions of Christians, Nero and Domitian. They hated believers with such venom. And here is John, banished for his faith, knowing that these wicked and terrible things were happening, and had happened to his fellow believers, those he loved, those he would ordinarily be shepherding and caring for as their pastor and strokehelder, and now he's isolated from their fellowship and from their presence, no doubt feeling vulnerable and helpless himself. And he's probably the last of the apostles. Most, if not all, have been martyred up until this point, and he's the last one. And there he is on the island of Patmos, isolated from fellowship. This book of the Revelation would then be sent to these seven churches, listed in verse number 11. And as you read in chapters two and three, you see that those churches knew what it was to suffer greatly for the cause of truth and of God. John finds himself here on the Isle of Patmos, isolated and alone. And in our present condition, we can come and identify to some degree with John. We're isolated. We're distancing ourselves one from another, not out of choice or desire, but of necessity and lawful command. We perhaps are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, Perhaps we're struggling with various concerns and burdens. Perhaps we're worried about how we're going to manage and how others are managing. Perhaps we feel very useless. We can't help, we can't do what we normally would do. Well, perhaps we can get a loan from John and see what happened to him and how he was helped in this circumstance. In verse 10, we see the second point, his desire. Here he is, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. Despite what he was facing, despite his troubles, despite the overwhelming nature of problems that were coming toward him, his desire was this, on the Lord's Day, he would be worshipped in the Spirit and in truth. we can fall into the trap of thinking that we're too tired, too busy, too distracted, or whatever it may be, to come to worship God. And yet for John, we have an example of one who faced many things, many more things than we do. And yet on the Lord's day, there he is in worship toward God. worshipping in the Spirit. Now some commentators have said that this Lord's Day here is a reference to the day of the Lord's, Judgment, but it's not, it's the Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath, our weekly Sabbath. And here is John on this occasion in worship, in presence of God, and he's taken up by the Spirit of God. How do we view God's Day? The Lord's Day. Is it one of drudgery, of boredom, apprehension, ritual, frustration perhaps? Is it something that just entails what we want to do, what we normally would like to do? Or is it the best day of the week, when we have that opportunity to gather with God's people? Our Lord's Days are very different to what they would have been like just a few weeks ago. I trust we're thankful for what we have and for the blessings of technology that we've been able to harness at this time. But I trust that we're all praying we might soon be gathered together, worshipping as one corporate body and enjoying and having that fellowship of the saints. Despite our separation, are we meeting with the Lord on his day? And for John, as he gathers, and the implication here is that he gathers and this is a weekly habit for him, we find that he has received such a blessing that words cannot adequately describe it. And may we, during this lockdown, know the graciousness of God upon us and experience his blessing. as we gather on the Lord's Day in worship. The third thing that we notice is the discovery. As John is here isolated, banished from the Isle of Panos, and on the Lord's Day he's gathered for worship and in prayer toward God, he's caught up in the Spirit, what is it that John is shown? Jesus Christ was revealed to him. What a revelation that is. What a remedy it was for him, to gain him some perspective of what he was suffering, and what the end would be, and what his fellow believers were enduring at this time. Now let me give you a little illustration. Imagine that you're an ant. You've got six legs, and you've got the antenna coming out of your head, and you are in an ant army, making your march. And all you do is follow the ant in front of you. If you watch, particularly this summer, you see a train of ants going, and they follow exactly the same path as they're making their journey to get what they need to get, whether it's food or supplies. All you can see is what the ant in front of you is doing. You're not aware of what is happening behind or to the side. You are only interested in what is happening immediately in front of you. Now just imagine there's a child playing in that garden, and suddenly a tennis ball or a football comes hurtling towards you. How disorientating that would be to you as that little ant. It would be dangerous and you could well be swashed, but it would be very worrying and very concerning. Now just imagine that you're not now one of these little ants crawling along the ground, but you're one of these flying ants that come out in June. And you can hover. and you can go up to the height of the rooftops, and you can look down, and you can see what is happening. Your perspective is altered and changed. And so you can now see the dangers. You can now see where you're going. You can see where you have come from, and you can see a completely different view to the one that the anchor had on the floor. And for John, he is about to go on a journey to have his perspective altered and corrected, and to show it's not just about him, his troubles, his sufferings, his enemies. There is that glorious plan of God that is going to come to fruition and fulfilment. And more wonderfully than that, he is going to be shown the glory and the majesty of Christ. He's going to sort those traps unknown. Now, there are many things that we could draw from this. As you go through the rest of the book of the Revelation, you can see wonderful things. There's not gonna be time to go in every detail, but the first thing that I wanted just to mention is he had that view of Christ, the majestic, glorious view of his Savior. We read something of that in chapter one, but in fact, it goes all the way through this great book. And John is taken up from thinking about where he is and the limitations that he has to viewing Christ in his glory. If you look in verse number 13, for example, in verse 12, I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks in the midst of seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, girted out of the pants with a golden girdle. And then there is that glorious description of Christ, very similar to what you have in the book of Daniel as well. It's interesting how joy is not shown, Jesus as the baby at Bethlehem, or Jesus as the suffering Savior on the cross, or indeed as Jesus the risen saviour that he remembered being ascended up into glory, but here he is being reminded that his saviour is God, reigning in the heavens. And you have this glorious, majestic view of him. All the details are wonderful. All the things we have here, his descriptions, was not to be taken literally and to paint it like you would a picture, but they give a representation of who Jesus is and who he now is and what he is doing. And no wonder John, in verse 17, falls at his feet as a dead man. Such is the glory and the majesty of Christ. The crowned Savior is there with him, saying unto him, fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. What an encouragement to John, facing what he was facing, and yet to be reminded of who he served and who truly was on the throne. Okay, much more should be said. But another thing that we discover in this book of the Revelation is the care of Christ for his church. You have there, again in verse number 12, this imagery of these seven golden candlesticks. And then you come down to verse 20, you discover what those candlesticks are. They are the seven churches. And you discover, then go to chapters two and three, that these seven churches that are mentioned in verse number 11 are written to individually and specifically What a wonderful reminder it is of Christ in the midst of his church. There he is walking about his church, wherever they're gathered. Concerning church discipline, Jesus would say, we're two and three gathered together in my name, though am I in the midst. And here we have these several churches described, all different. Some are commended for their faithfulness, some are condemned. for their sin, some have a mixture of both commendation and condemnation. But what is remarkable in these seven churches, how Christ's in the midst of them, nothing misses his gaze. We can read in verse number 19 of chapter two, I know thy works, and charity, service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works. than the first. He knows what his people are suffering. You have details concerning the martyrdoms that have taken place and the sufferings of the people of God. He knows. He's concerned he will help. He gives them great encouragement as to how that they shall receive crowns of life, how they shall be preserved. Him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. even as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in His throne." Chapter 3, verse 21, that time written to the church of the Laodiceans. The Lord Jesus Christ is shown to be intimately concerned for His people. He's not distant, He's not remote, He's not taken and removed. He knows everything that is happening to His dear people and to His church. He knows what is happening for us. He knows our labours. He knows our struggles. He knows our sin. He knows everything about us. There is such care of Christ for his church. And so when we think about what we're facing, it's not because he doesn't care. It's not because he's not able. It's not because he's too remote from these things. He knows everything, and He's concerned for His people. In the middle part of the book of Revelation, you have a series of prophecies, a series of symbols and pictures that come to us. And one of the things that comes out of that is the way in which there are judgments and punishments for sin. But as you look at those different pictures and symbols that are given to us, what we are reminded of is the control of Christ. The control of God in this. That there are the enemies of God. There is the pestilence that comes. There are the works of the devil coming and beguiling and ensnaring. And yet, throughout it, we're reminded of Christ being supreme. And what a wonderful encouragement that is. We can turn to Revelation chapter 12. And there you have that picture there of the woman and the dragon. There is the adversary, the devil, coming to work against the people of God, seeming to be all-powerful, and yet in the midst of it, you see the superiority of God and of the power of Christ. You come a bit further on, you come to chapter 17 and 18, you have the picture there of Babylon, mystery Babylon, and the way in which she comes to an end. The enemies of God, they rise up for a time, and yet they have their defeats. And then when you come to chapter nine, chapter 19 rather, you see the conquest of Christ. That's connected to what we previously said, the control of Christ. We have in chapter 19 particularly the conquest of Christ. There he is pictured as being one that is riding to victory. He is one riding to glory. None are going to stand in his way. Despite all of the great company of men and the enemies of God gathering, we find he has the victory. And he has on his vesture and his thigh neck written, King of kings and Lord of lords. None can oppose him. So when we see what's happening today, we ought to be reminded of the majesty and kingship of Christ, concern and care that Christ has for his church, the control of Christ in all of the things of this life, whether they be things natural or supernatural, things temporal or spiritual, Christ in control, and he is the one that will have and has the victory. He is riding to victory, as we read of in that 19th chapter. Come to the chapter 20, you see how that conquest of Christ is final and it's complete. Every last enemy, every last foe of Satan done away with, destroyed, buried in that great lake of fire, never to rise again. How we need our perspective changed and altered. How we need to be lifted up to view what is happening in our world today, the circumstances that we are facing, to view what Christ has done and who he is and how he has absolute control and conquest. And then in chapters 21 and 22, we see the comfort of Christ for his people. Sin is done away with. Sorrow is done away with. He makes all things new. there he is with his people, to dwell with them, to nurture them, to bless them, not just for a few years, but for eternity. Verse number three of chapter 21, I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. He will dwell with them. They should be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. The comfort of God for his people, Christ with his people for all eternity. All the people of God, everyone risen in the Lamb's book of life, gathered to worship him, never to depart from his presence. There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face. Well, in these times we live, which are perplexing and troubling, and we're experiencing the isolation and separation of one from another, may we have our view of Christ enhanced, to view him in his glory. He is King. He loves his church. He wants the best for her. And that may require discipline. And we perhaps feel chastened at this moment. We may feel rebuked. But it will be for our good. And it's done in love by him. When we see what's happening with this pandemic, it appears to be out of control. rampaging through our nation and throughout this world, yet we have to remind ourselves that God is in control. And we have to remind this, that whatever happens, the one that we serve, he is the victor, and all victory is his. And if we should be called to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, and our lives are taken, perhaps through COVID-19 or through some other experience. Perhaps our families might believe it's premature. For the people of God, they can rest assured that that will enter, that will usher into them and bring before them a glorious entrance into glory. And we can be reminded that he is coming again, can gather all of His people to Himself and they will have that embrace of Him for all eternity. No troubles, no sorrows, no sin, but the uninterrupted view of the Saviour for all eternity. May the Lord help us.