Well, I trust the last two sermons on an introduction to Revelation have been helpful to you. I realize that some of it has been a bit academic. Is that a fair way to put it? We've been done a lot of the details and yet those things are critical to proper understanding to be able to respond to this book. Authorship and interpretation have been attacked since the early third century, as I mentioned with Dionysus, as he attacked both authorship, saying it's some other John rather than the apostle who wrote it, and then advocating an allegorical or a mystical approach in interpretation that had been taught by his teacher Origen. But the overwhelming evidence, it is John the Apostle, who is the penman of the book, and that a literal interpretation is the way to understand it. Now, the actual author of the book, as stated in verses one and two, is God the Father, who gave the revelation to Jesus, who transmitted it through an angel to John the Apostle, who wrote all things down that he saw, that he heard, so that we, who belong to God, we've been bought with his blood, we are his slaves, may have an understanding of the things that were shown. or stated in the instruction in verse 19, is he wrote down the things he had seen, the things which are, the things which are gonna take place. This is a book of prophecy. Now, literal interpretation of this book and of scripture in general dominated the church until about the end of the fourth, early fifth century. In the fourth century, the church went from being persecuted to being tolerated, to by the end of the century, it was the official religion of the empire. And the influence of Augustine in the early 5th century shifted interpretive method to be more accepting of allegory. Now, the allegorical method actually became the official standard hermeneutic of the Roman Catholic Church, and then that kind of went through everything and dominated up until the Reformation. At the Reformation, what they returned to looking to the scriptures themselves as a source of authority rather than to the traditions of men, the magisterium, the pope, things shifted again, and though Achillism, Millennialism did not die during that period. It certainly was greatly suppressed. It began to rise again to the point of where we are currently. Now, Revelation 20 states there is a time period of 1,000 years. It states it six times. Usually, when we look at Scripture, something's repeated over and over. It's important, right? Isn't that true in any conversation you have? If you repeat it over and over and over again, it's probably really important. So, I mean, it's pretty simple, but there it is. But if you're gonna go allegorical in your interpretation, well, 1,000 doesn't mean 1,000 anymore. And in fact, nothing else in the chapter really means what it says. It means something else, according to whether the interpreter wants. The normal meanings of the words and the grammar are lost. So allegory, mysticism, spiritualization of scripture has resulted in a plethora of interpretations, especially of revelation. among those who hold a view that denies an actual physical reign of Christ on David's throne in Jerusalem for a thousand years. Amillennialists deny it. Those who hold to a post-millennial view minimize it and say, well, the millennial reign is going to be a period of a minimization of evil, a dominance of the church, and Jesus comes back at the end of that to usher in eternity, judgment and then eternity. and then even preeminence are affected by this. They may agree that the text in 20, chapter 20, is proper, Jesus is going to come back, physically reign for a thousand years, yet they'll use allegorical interpretation throughout the rest of the book, so there's a mess out there. And if you've ever studied Revelation before, or you've grabbed some commentaries, and I have a bunch of them, they're all over the place. All over the place. Why? Because of what underlies it. How can you know what's in it if your whole method of interpretation allows you to make it anything you want? So, we interpret the scriptures here literally using the grammatical historical method. We actually believe that God communicated this in a way that we can understand. We think that was his purpose. And so we go back to what did God intend for those to whom it was first written Understand it. What did he intend them to understand? And once we understand the meaning historically, according to what actually is written, then we can move on to application. And we'll find there's gonna be a lot of application in scripture after we understand it. And application can be in many different ways, but we gotta understand it first. Now this method also includes recognizing there's a lot of literary genre. There's poetry, there's historical narrative, there's wisdom literatures, there's teaching or didactic passages, there's prophecy, and there's all sorts of types of speech. There's quotations in it, there's direct revelation, thus saith the Lord, there is paraphrases, there's metaphor, there's symbolism, all sorts of different kind of literature in there. But when it comes to things like symbolism, symbolism actually has meaning and it's not allegory, they're different. Symbolism has an established meaning. Allegory is only left to the imagination of the interpreter. Now as I pointed out previously in verse three, Revelation chapter one, there is a blessing that is to be given to those who will read or hear the prophecy of this book and heed what it says. And certainly as we read through this, there's parts here that are terrifying. But what's the beginning of wisdom and knowledge? Well, Proverbs tells us the fear of the Lord. And so that's a good thing and that's a blessing because the fear of the Lord can move you to repentance, to believe and receive what God has promised in the Lord Jesus Christ that you're saved. So the fear of the Lord is a good place to start. For those who are Christians, there's a motivation here as we look at the promises made. The fear of the Lord there would actually motivate us to make sure we walk in holiness. All who have this hope of Jesus' return will seek to purify themselves. I believe it was Peter that said that. In addition, there's a great encouragement. Or as said in a song from the 1970s, a little Christian ditty is, I read the back of the book and we win. I mean, that's a great thing, isn't it? So I may not understand it, but I read the back of the book, and we win. Don't you want to be on the winning side? I do. So there's encouragement there. I'm happy. No matter what's going on, I know where it's going to end up. We win. So I can persevere in the midst of whatever's going on currently. Whatever my circumstances, whatever troubles, trials, tribulations I may be going through, I know where it's gonna end. And as an encouragement, it enables me to persevere, right? So there's a blessing in this book. And in fact, in the end of verse one, it says, these are things that must soon take place and that the time is near, end of verse two. Both reference to imminency, that's an urgency to make sure that I'm ready for Christ's return. We don't know when it's gonna come, but it can come at any time. Nothing has to happen before all these events start taking place. Many things could happen, but nothing must happen. And that's what we mean by eminency. Are you ready? I say it all the time, but I still mean it. I don't need to finish this sermon. He can come back now and praise God, right? These are good things, but it changes the way I want to live. Now last week we began to look at John's salutation in verses four and five, and we're gonna finish that today, as well as get into the doxology in verses five and six, and the theme of the book in verses seven and eight, and then begin the commission that actually goes from verses nine through 20, we're only gonna get to verse 11. Next week we're going to get into the description of the glory of Christ that he sees. But we're going to keep marching through this. Now last week I pointed out that John identifies himself in a very humble manner as simply brother. and also a fellow partaker in the sufferings. He is the one who's writing the letter. He is specifically gonna be writing it to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. That's now Western Turkey. And the specific churches will be identified in verse 11. We'll get to that today. It is from those churches the revelation will be spread. To all those who are slaves of God, as it's stated in verse one, is the intention of the book. It's for all of us. Now John gives this common greeting among Christians to one another, and it's one that we still will use. Grace and peace be unto you. What grace? Well, the unmerited favor of God. We don't deserve any of it, and yet, He gives us such blessings. That's grace. Here even more of a standing with Him because of that. God's grace has enabled me to have a standing with God that is right. The peace of God, this tranquility that can exist in every circumstance because of my right standing with Him. Whatever is going on in my life, I have a right standing with God. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. I have been bought with the blood of Christ and therefore I belong to God and that's to whom this revelation has been meant. So this is for me, it's for you if you're a Christian. And if you're not a Christian, you need to become a Christian, then it is for you, right? Now this common greeting also then goes on and he identifies a threefold source of where this is coming from. First is from him who is and who was and who is to come, and as we talked about that last week, it actually is a reference to God the Father. Why? Because Jesus Christ is mentioned specifically as the third person. So this is the Father. He is eternal. He is coming to fulfill the prophecies of this letter. The second is the seven spirits who are before his throne, and admittedly, that's confusing. But if we work through it, we see the same description of seven spirits as used in Revelation 3.1, 4.5, and 5.6, all of them connected to what study we did some time ago in Zechariah chapter four, verses one through 10. And there, the seven spirits are identified as the Holy Spirit. Now, why does he say seven here? I don't know. There is so much about God we don't know, but the seven spirits here are referring to the Holy Spirit. There's a manifestation of him. All right, so though it's confusing, that's where we go. It's the Holy Spirit. The third is mentioned specifically, it's Jesus Christ. So there we have the Trinity. That is where this greeting is actually coming from. Now we pick up today with the significance of each of these titles that is given to Christ as the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Now, each of those titles actually find their source in Psalm 89. Throughout Revelation, we keep finding these references back, these allusions to things in the Old Testament prophecies, and that's why we spent so much time going through that in the last couple years. If you don't understand the Old Testament prophecies, you're not gonna understand Revelation properly. So these go back to Psalm 89. Now, the first title here, is the faithful witness. I need to mention as well Psalm 89 is actually a commentary on the Davidic covenant. This covenant that God made with David especially concerning a future son, someone from his lineage that would be on his throne forever. Now the heart of the Davidic covenant is exactly that. Psalm 89 giving greater detail. In verses 36 and 37 of that psalm, describing David's throne, is as the sun before me, it shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness of the sky is faithful. There's a faithfulness that's gonna be part of this. Part of the Messiah is he's faithful. And that's what we find in Jesus. He is always faithful to present what God had taught him, what God had said to him, what God had commanded him. He states that specifically in John 8, 31 and chapter 12, 49 and 50. He would say and teach only on the Father's initiative, not his own, to declare exactly what God has said. The next phrase here, the firstborn, the dead, that goes back to Psalm 89 verse 27, who declares him to be the firstborn, the one who is preeminent. That's the meaning of the firstborn. But also here tied directly to Jesus' resurrection. So both. He is the preeminent one and he is the first one in the resurrection. He's primary. Now before Jesus rose from the dead, were there anybody else that got raised from the dead? Yes, right? Jesus had this habit of raising people. And I love the story when he stops a funeral in the city of Nain, and this widow is coming out, and it's her only son, is on the funeral briar, and he stops the funeral and raises him. Wouldn't you like your funeral to be that way? Now, it'd probably scare everybody around you, but those died again. They weren't gonna continue on. Jesus' resurrection's completely different. That's why in Colossians 1.18, he is the first born from out of the dead, or in 1 Corinthians 15.23, he is the first fruits of the resurrection. a bringing back to life, and there won't be death after that. That's part of his promises. That's part of the comfort we have as Christians. The next phrase here, the ruler of the kings of the earth, also comes from Psalm 89, 27, in which he is, quote, the highest of the kings of the earth. Well, Revelation 19, 16 states that upon his return, he's gonna have a name written on his thigh and on his robe. King of kings and Lord of lords. Yeah, amen, right? We're looking forward to that, because that's who he is. We don't have to do our songs to deal with that. Now, as it goes on in verse five, John breaks into a doxology. A doxology is a praise to God. He says this, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood, and he has made us to be a kingdom, a kingdom, priest to God, to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now there are a few things I want to pull out of this doxology that are very encouraging to us as Christians. The first is this beginning phrase. Now, it's an obvious reference to Jesus, as he's described in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19. He is the one that redeemed us from our futile way of life. How? Through his own precious blood. That is what he purchased us with. The redemption being paid, it means the price of sin being paid. I don't owe it anymore. And so I'm freed from the penalty of it. Someone else has already done it. He did. And so no more bondage to sin. Romans chapter six deals with that as well. I was a slave to sin, I'm no longer a slave to sin, I'm a slave to Christ. I'm a slave to righteousness, change of masters. Part of Romans six, the whole argument there is quit listening to a master who's not your master anymore. You don't belong to him. Redemption has brought that about. Romans 5a declares that Christ's death for us was when? While we were sinners and He demonstrated His love for us when Christ died. Now that's a past event in history, right? But it's a past event that proves for all time and forever the love of the Father to us that His Son would die for us. He'd pay the penalty. He would be the redemption prize. We can be forgiven, restored to God, if we believe. Now here in Revelation 1.5 though, John, interesting enough, he uses a present active participle, I know, back to English class. What? Here's why it's important. Present active participle for the verb love, that places a stress on something. It's not just a past event that demonstrates God's love. Here it says it's present act, it continues today. It's not just God loved you in the past. He loves you now. Isn't that comforting? It's one of those little things that just pops out if you pay attention to the grammar. Too often we overlook those things. But those little things are important. He loves you now. It's still current. The past event proves it, but it's still current. He loves you. Now second, John includes Jesus making Christians, it says here, into a kingdom. And a kingdom of people who are priests to God, and that's a reason for praise. And that matches what 1 Peter 2, 9, and 10 talks about, that as Christians we have received mercy to be the people of God who are, quote, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now priests serve two primary functions. The first is leading in the worship of God. The second is a mediator between God and man. And what is said here is we are to lead in the worship of God by giving praise to him and telling people about his excellencies, his mercies to us, the gospel message. It states here a kingdom of priests, that's a little different than Peter says, a royal priesthood, because this places an emphasis, as we'd expect in Revelation, on a messianic rule of a kingdom and its future. Now there's a spiritual kingdom in the present, Jesus mentions that, but the focal point of Revelation is there's a future kingdom and that's how we will serve. Revelation 20 expressly states the saints in the future will have participation in Christ's earthly kingdom. Now third, this marvelous description of Jesus' identity and blessings to Christians cause John then to explain that to Jesus belongs, quote, the glory and the dominion forever and ever, amen. Now glory here refers to honor, to reverence, to exaltation, and that belongs to God because of who he is. And then the might or dominion here refers to power to rule or control. And both of these belong to God the Father and to Jesus, God the Son, the second person, the triune Godhead, because he has the same attributes, the same prerogatives. They're co-equal to each other. Now John uses a Hebrew idiom here. It actually is translated age to age, though usually in your translations forever and ever. And it expresses this as continuing in the future for perpetuity. And then he concludes the doxology by pronouncing the amen. That's an affirmation of the author that what has been written is true. So let it be. This is a Jesus identity, what he has accomplished and is worthy of a doxology, of a glory to him. Now, the theme of Revelation is given by God in verses seven and eight. It says this, behold, he is coming with the clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Now, this is the first prophecy in the book, and it sets the theme of it. Special attention is called to by the beginning. Behold, that's, it's beginning a short article, oracle here. Pay attention, look at this. Declaration about Christ made in verse seven and the Lord God directly affirms it in verse eight. The promise here is of the coming of Jesus Christ, which is the underlying topic throughout all of Revelation in three stages. is the things that happen prior to his coming. It'll be the things that happen at his coming, and the things that will happen after his coming. That's the theme of the book. The bulk of it is gonna be what happens before it. Now, his coming in the clouds, that actually, the first reference is really Daniel 7, verse 13. And behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of Man was coming, an early prophecy. and upon which Jesus expands on that very prophecy in Matthew 24, 30. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. That was the base of the statement here in verse seven. Jesus made this same prophecy in Matthew 26, 64 as a warning to the Sanhedrin. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. That matches the promise made to the disciples, the ones who became the apostles in Acts 1, 9 through 11. They had gone with Jesus to Mount of Olives. Jesus ascends to heaven into the clouds, and they're standing there looking up like we would when we release a healing balloon. You can still see it, right? And they're watching, and an angel comes and tells them, Why are you doing this? The same Jesus whom you've seen ascent will return in the exact same way. He's returning from the clouds. There's also an emphasis here on the eminency of this return for this is also present tense. It's is coming, not future tense, will come. That's eminency. It's presenting it as he's already on his way. Or James puts it, he's standing at the door. He's ready to, it's not soft in the future, anytime He can come. Now contrary to the many false prophets that Jesus has returned in some secret, hidden, mystical manner, spiritual manner, and that is a common theme among the cults, when Jesus returns, every eye will see Him. Nothing hidden here. This will include those who pierced him. Now that refers both to the Jews and the Romans that brought about Jesus' execution. It was the spear of a Roman soldier that actually pierced his side, proving that he actually was dead when the blood and water flowed out of it. The blood was already separating. But his being crucified was at the assistance of who? The religious Jews. And while the individuals who actually did the physical deed died a long, long time ago, in fact, most of them would have died before John wrote this in the mid-90s, the statement here refers to a subclass of all the people who Jesus returned. It would be those people who would have been in agreement with Jesus' death, putting him to death. Now this particular prophecy also goes back to the earlier prophecies in Zechariah 12.10, Isaiah 53.5. So again, John is not writing something off the cuff. He is writing something that's consistent with the prophecies given long before. But wouldn't we expect that of God? We expect it to be true all the way through history? And that's exactly what's happening here. Now the quote that all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him also goes back to another prophecy in Zechariah 12, verse 10. Although it's expanded here to include every subgroup of humans, every tribe, and not just those who pierced him, for the suffering that Christ's return is gonna bring upon the wicked is gonna be worldwide in scope. So the mourning here is not that of repentance, a recognition of sins they have done and turning from that. Young's literal translation does a better job of this because the term really should be probably wailing. The particular word here actually means to cut. And that was the common practice in pagan funerals is they'd cut themselves as part of their rituals. and they would wail, and they would make violent and persistent outcries, alternating with laments. That was what they meant by mourning, and that's what's meant here. It would also include, as we get into Revelation, we see the response of people to God's chastening of them, which should cause them to turn, is instead of repentance, is going to be blasphemy. They just get more hardened. Jesus' return brings no comfort to those who continue in the rebellion against him. Only a comfort to those who return. Now the response to this statement in verse seven is emphatic. Yes, amen. It's absolutely certain Jesus is going to come. He is coming, as stated, with these resulting effects. The prophecy is then verified by the speaker in verse eight, who identifies himself with four titles. I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Now the harmony and equality of God the Father and God the Son throughout Revelation is seen in that each of these titles can be applied to either the Father or the Son. But that would be expected, wouldn't it? Colossians 2.9 states that Jesus Christ that, quote, in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily. Hebrews 1.3 states he is, quote, the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature. If you, or put it the way Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Now Jesus used the covenant name of God that he gave to Moses in Exodus 3.14, that of I am, who are you gonna say, who do I tell them that is sending me to free you from Pharaoh's grasp here? Tell them I am a send you. Jesus uses that same title for himself in John 8.58. The title Alpha and Omega, an expression which stands for totality, along with the other equivalents of it, The first, the last, the beginning and the end. It's used of Jesus in Revelation 22, 13. But equivalent statements are also made of the Father. There's at least five or six of them in Isaiah alone. The title of the Almighty, it's used nine times in Revelation. In chapter 21, 22, it's used of the Lord God and it's distinguished from the Lamb. But in 15.3, it is the title that's included in the Song of the Lamb. It applies to both the Lamb and the Lord God. This same title, who is and who was and who is to come, is used in reference to the Father, as we saw in chapter one, verse four. It's gonna come up again in chapter four, verse eight. But then Jesus also is eternal, is he not? John 1.1, he was in the beginning, he was the Word, he was in the beginning with the Father. He is, Revelation 1.5, He currently is, and He is coming, verse seven. So there's no doubt, there's an equality between God the Father and God the Son. That's part of our understanding of the triune nature of God. They are co-equal with each other. Three persons, one being. No, you don't understand that, and neither do I, because God is different than us. He simply states, this is my nature. This is what I'm like. Now many commentators conclude that Jesus is the one speaking in verse eight since he's the subject of verse seven. However, the Lord God speaking in verse eight is doing so to attest to the truth of what is said in verse seven. It's important to follow the flow of the argument in the text, what's happening. Now there's several reasons that this actually fits better that it's God the Father and not Jesus. I'm gonna tell you when I really started digging into this, I had to really dig into this because I was always taught it's Jesus. From a little kid, that's always been a reference. But watch what happens here in this text. There's several reasons this better fits God the Father. First, the title Lord God is used consistently throughout the Hebrew scriptures to refer to God the Father. the first person the triune God had. There is no definitive passage that ever uses that phrase, Lord God, for the second person of the Trinity. That would be the first clue. Second, the father attested to the son and his ministry when at both his baptism and at the transfiguration. So we already see there's a pattern. The father attests to the son who he is and what he's doing. Third, in keeping with Old Testament law, in John 5, Jesus himself recognizes bearing witness of himself has no legal standing. So instead, in that chapter in John 5, he points out the witness that is born by John the Baptist. to his works, what he has done, to what God the Father has said, and to the scriptures themselves. He gave four witnesses. So the absolute surety of verse seven is in verse eight, it is given by God the Father. This is who he is, this is what he has done, this is what's coming. It's absolute. So to say, yes, amen, absolutely, that's the flow of the text. And that's an encouragement. It's not just Jesus bearing witness himself. The Father is bearing witness. This is who he is. So it really becomes something similar to at his baptism or transfiguration. Now in verses nine through 11, John is given his commission of what he was to do. He begins this way, I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance, which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet saying, write in the book what you see, send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Now he begins here with this very humble identification of a brother. And he is writing to those who are brothers. And he sees no need to impress them with his standing, his position as an apostle. In fact, he never does do that. You won't find that in any of his other writings either. He simply is going to go on to state, I'm bearing witness to what God has revealed to me. That was his assignment, that was his commission. He also identifies himself as fellow partaker, someone who shares in communion with those who are going through the tribulation, the kingdom, and patient endurance that are in Jesus. He understood what those to whom he is writing, those who are going to receive this letter in the province of Asia are going through because he's gone through the same thing. They were part of Jesus' church, this present spiritual kingdom on earth, and they were suffering persecution, and they were patiently enduring it by their trust in Jesus, just as he was doing. Now, suffering for the testimony of Christ in your life began at the birth of the church. In Acts chapter three, we find Peter and John. They heal a lame man, and then Peter preaches to those that were there, and immediately after, they're both arrested. Didn't take long, did it? They're threatened, they're released. Acts 5, they're arrested again. Why? Because he preached another sermon in chapter four. This time they're flogged. Now the response of the apostles to this was that they were rejoicing that they were considered worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. That's verse 41. Now, admittedly, that probably makes us a little uncomfortable. Do I really want to suffer that way? Do I want to get flogged? Well, this is their mindset of, if they crucify Jesus, well then, why should I be surprised that I'm persecuted? And they just thought it as an honor that they would be suffering for the name of Christ. And it remains that way. Severe persecution erupts in Acts 8, and it causes the church to scatter throughout Judea, Samaria, and to all the places they had come from, the uttermost parts of the earth. Paul ends up referring to this kind of persecution as simply the fellowship of suffering. We share in this together, Philippians 3.10. In fact, it is so normal that Paul states in Acts 14.22, quote, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Now he doesn't mean that by tribulation, by suffering, somehow you gain entrance to the kingdom of God. Rather, it is that those who are seeking to enter the kingdom of God need to expect, you're gonna suffer for it. People are gonna hate you because they hate God. That's what Jesus had told us. Jesus spoke of the same thing, the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, right? Blessed are you when you are persecuted and slandered and all manner of evil set against you falsely for my sake. That we should expect. Now the only means of entering the kingdom of heaven is repentance from sin and self to believe in the person and work of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's just how normal it was. It was expected. You're gonna suffer if you name and follow Christ. Now at the time that John wrote this, the Roman emperor Domitian was nearing the end of his reign. Now the early part of his reign, he's sort of moderate toward what was called the imperial cult. As his reign goes on, he becomes more and more attached into this. Even to the point toward the end of it, he is claiming deity and demanding that he is dressed as Lord God, or Lord and God. He became so domineering and tyrannical that a conspiracy erupted that included his wife. And they murdered him in 96 AD. Now the imperial cult was very strong in this area, Asia, Roman Asia. Ephesus actually had a temple dedicated to the mission. And since Christians would refuse to participate in sacrifices to any pagan god, much less a man who's claiming to be one, the emperor, they were considered disrespectful and treasonous. And depending how the local ruler would react to that, it could become very difficult for Christians to remain true to their faith. In fact, as this cult went on, there was a lot of Christians who were martyred because of it, simply because they would not burn incense to the emperor. Eusebius described Domitian as cruel and unjust, putting to death, quote, no small number of well-born and notable men at Rome, and having without cause exiled and confiscated the property of a great many other illustrious men, unquote. Eusebius then pointed out that Domitian had, quote, stirred up a persecution against us. Now John states here in verse nine that he was on the island called Patmos. This is because of Domitian. He exiled him to this island. And here's the shape of it. It's a small, barren, volcanic island. It's about 13 square miles in the Icarian Sea. It's off the coast of what is modern Turkey. It's about 22 miles southwest of Samos, and about 40 miles from the coastal city of Miletus. It's about 60 miles from Ephesus. Now, it's shaped sort of like a seahorse. I don't know how else would you describe it, with the face is facing toward Turkey, okay? And there's a picture of it, it's barren. It's, you know, not a nice place. This occurred in the 14th year of Domitian's reign. And by then John is very aged. He may be in his 90s. Victorinus, fourth century, he wrote that John was, quote, condemned to labor the mines that were on this island. Got an old man who's working the mines. John states specifically it was because the word of God and testimony of Jesus. The tribulation he was going through was because he was a faithful follower of Christ. He was a proclaimer of Christ. In fact, other contemporary things is there was a surge in the witness of Christ in that same time period and John was a major preacher. In verse 10, John states that he was, quote, in the spirit, or more literally, I came to be in the spirit. This is a reference to an ecstatic state. Now it may have been somewhat similar to what Peter experienced in Acts 10.10 or Paul in Acts 22, 17, in which they received a revelation from God in dreams, except John has experienced this while he's wide awake. He's not asleep. It's not a dream. It's something he's experienced a different way. Maybe a little bit more like Ezekiel. Ezekiel 2, 2, 3, 12, 14, and 24 all talk about an experience he had where the spirit of God entered into him and lifted him up to experience and see these prophecies. Now whatever the specifics of what he experienced, John's statement is clear. The spirit of God is at work in him and not in a normal state. It's a different state. God is doing something. Now John also states here it occurred on the Lord's day. Now many commentators try to equate this with the eschatological day of the Lord. But if we look at what the phrase day of the Lord is used in the New Testament, that'd be 1 Thessalonians 5.2, 2 Thessalonians 2.2, and 2 Peter 3.10. We've actually looked at all of those in the past couple years. It's a different grammatical construction. It's not the same. The Lord's day uses an adjective, whereas a genitive noun is used in the day of the Lord. The Lord's day and the day of the Lord, they're not the same thing. Now Pat, more importantly here, John is making a statement here about the timing of what he experienced just as he had just did about his location and his spiritual state. If you're gonna jump to the future day of the Lord, I don't know, time travel? It contradicts the passage's context with Jesus actually being present and him then commanding John to write to currently existing churches, as we'll see in verses 11 through 20. That's a little, you're gonna get whiplash here, right? I'm gonna take time travel to the future, but yet he's here present telling me now to do this. So which is the end? Well, what then is the Lord's day? Well, the same phrase occurs in Christian writings at the same time period and in the same general area, specifically in the Didache and in the writings of Ignatius, in which it is a reference to the first day of the week, in which the church would gather in honor of the Lord's resurrection on that day. That would be our Sunday. Acts 20, verse 7, and 1 Corinthians 16, too, indicate the practice of churches early on, had begun to meet on the first day of the week. It was already widespread years before this. Contemporary usage then of the phrase the Lord's Day indicates that those in the seven churches receiving this letter would have understood it in that manner, the first day of the week. Now the practice of the Lord's Day being the first day of the week, or Sunday, has actually continued to the present time. We're meeting on a Sunday, right? The first day of the week. Though in many places, the normal day the church worships together, they gather together, it could be a Friday, it could be a Saturday. I need to quickly add here that Paul makes it clear in Romans 14, five and six, Galatians 4, 10, and Colossians 2, 16 through 17, that the particular day you choose to worship is according to your own preference. In fact, he specifically states, don't be arguing about that. Don't judge one another about that. Period. So we shouldn't be judging those that want to worship on a Saturday or a Friday, and they shouldn't be judging us. Now, frankly, there's actually more of a pragmatic ask to when the church meets to worship, and I want you to think about this. Now in the Western world, because of Christian influence, what day is normal for you to have off from work? I realize that's changed in the last 40 years, but what is still the normal day you get off? Saturday and Sunday, right? Mostly Sunday. That's usually the day off. Now, to tell you how it's changed here, I'll just use my brother's illustration. When he was 16, he began working for a local market. They were not open on Sunday. When I was a kid, and you traveled especially through the South, you had blue laws. Nobody worked on Sunday, nothing was open. You better have gone to the grocery market on Saturday so that you could have something to eat on Sunday. It wasn't open. Now by the time he got in his early 20s, they had switched to being open on Sunday afternoons after one o'clock. That way you could get to the store and work if you were going to church. It didn't take that long that they started opening in the morning. Before he ended his career, Sunday was the busiest day in the store, period. Things have changed. But in the Western world it's still true that generally Sunday is a day off for most workers, right? Ideally you like a Monday to Friday or maybe a Tuesday to Saturday or something like that, but Sunday's gonna be a day off. So when's it convenient to be able to gather together? Sunday. Now if you were to live in a Muslim land, what would be the normal day off from work? Friday. Okay? And in Muslim lands, guess when the church usually meets? Friday. It's pretty simple. Among the Jews, when do they usually take a day off work? Saturday. So when I was in Israel, it was interesting, on Friday and Saturday, you had to be careful which shop you're going to, because if it's owned by a Muslim, it's closed on Friday. If it's owned by a Jew, it's closed on Saturday. And the Christians would tend to meet on Saturday or Friday, often depending on which society they had come out of. Now, does it really matter then if it's Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? No, what's the point? Meet together as a church to worship God. So figure it out. All right? That's pretty pragmatic. But in this case, John mentions a specific day of the week. It's the Lord's day, and that's when all this happened. Now, John states here then the location, it's Patmos, his state of being, he's in the spirit, the timing, it's the Lord's day, and then he states he heard, quote, behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet. John is gonna be hearing a lot of loud voices as we get through Revelation. Most often it's angels or an angel. Sometimes it's a mix of different beings as in chapter five, verse 11 and 12. Sometimes it's the martyrs, chapter 6, 9, and 10. Once there's an eagle, chapter 8, verse 13. There is also the multitude in heaven, chapter 19, verse 1. And then there's unidentified voices from heaven, 12, 10, the temple, 16, 1, and from the throne, 21, 3. It's going to get loud. Now the voice here, though, is specifically identified in the next section of the passage. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see that next week. We're gonna look at his glorious appearance. And Jesus will speak to John in the same manner in chapter four, verse one. that he heard the voice like a trumpet signifies both the loudness of it and the clarity, okay? A trumpet has to give a clear sound if you're gonna be able to do what the message from the trumpet is saying. So it's a clarity. It certainly got John's attention, right? Now if someone blew a trumpet in your ear, would it get your attention? Okay, well that's the point here. I heard a loud voice and we'll see when we get to verse 12. He turns around to see what it is. You would too. Now verse 11, the voice tells John specifically. This is the commission, write in a book what you see, send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamon, to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. So John was to write down what he would see in the vision that he be given and then send it to these seven churches. Now each of these seven churches in the Roman province of Asia where John had been ministering That's important. There's these churches you'd be familiar with. And if you proceed, the next slide, if you start with Ephesus, and if you go in a clockwise circle, there, now it doesn't connect Laodicea to Ephesus, but you would go in a circle around there. This is a circular road. And it ties together the most populous, wealthy, and influential parts of this Asian province. In addition, each of these particular cities is a communication hub to the surrounding areas. You might say it's where the central mail comes before it's distributed. We still do the same thing in our own mail system, right? Here it gets up to Albany and then it's distributed, right? So each church is important as a means of communication, and from that male hub, it's gonna go out to the other areas, fulfilling the purpose as stated in verse one. It's gonna go to all the slaves of God. Now the content of the specific letters to each individual church is recorded in chapters two and three, and it revealed the spiritual condition of each church, and each church varied in that condition. Now it would appear that because the messages to each individual church are eventually gonna be distributed to every Christian, then the encouragement given to that church, the warnings given to that church, would be applicable to any church that would be similar. Learn the lesson, here's the principle, take the warning, take the encouragement if you're like this. And we'll examine each of these particular churches as we study individual message to them in the weeks to come. Now the idea that the message to each church represents some time period where they were fulfilled prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. as the Preterists do, or being at periods in church history, either past, that would be the traditional or continuous historic model, or a general representation of the battle between good and evil, that would be the timeless, symbolic, or idealist model. Those are all interpretive speculations that contradict the text of Scripture itself. That's important. Okay? We've gone into speculation. The text says something to us. Follow this. John has identified himself as a particular person. He is writing from a particular place. When he was there for particular reasons, which places him there at a particular time in history, and what he experiences takes place while in a particular state, he's in the spirit. That occurs on a particular day. He receives a command from a particular person to write a particular book to be sent to particular churches in particular cities. Sounds like it's pretty particular. Okay, John is gonna use symbolic language. He's gonna use metaphor. He is not giving any kind of allegory here. There's nothing mystical. What John is going to write is gonna fulfill the specific purpose of this book of prophecy that was given back in verse three. It is a blessing to those who will read, who will hear it, and will heed it. That includes sinners who cause to fear and repent and believe. It is true for saints who are motivated to pursue greater holiness and persevere in present circumstances, knowing the promises of our Lord are true. Heaven will be our home. Next week, we're gonna look at the glorious appearance of Jesus, which John describes in verses 12 through 20, and then we'll start an examination of each of the particular message of these churches. And when I was putting the schedule together, I thought I was gonna get through the glorious appearance of Christ. And I thought that would be a great way to move right into communion. That'll be next week. But we're gonna have communion this week. Because we've already had some glimpses of that happening. The glorious savior that we have and what he's done. The section we already covered talked about what he's done for us. A proven love. How do I get past it? It's proven in his sacrifice. It can never be doubted. You can't challenge it without becoming a liar. This is what he's done. And when we celebrate communion, we're looking to both the past and to the future. We proclaim his death until he comes. This is what our God has done for us to prove that love, and he continues to love us to this very day, as we saw in our text today. All of that still pointing to something that revelation's all about. He's coming. He's coming. I wanna give you a couple minutes to go before the Lord. 1 Corinthians 11 challenges us that if we're coming to this, we need to come in the right spirit. We don't wanna be haphazard with it. The wonderful mercy and grace of God is that we don't earn salvation. We don't earn forgiveness. We simply confess our sins. I want to give you a few moments if there's something you need to confess, agree with God. He's right, you're wrong. Could always be that way. But that makes you right with God because he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all sin.