But back in the Old Testament, probably about 600 years before the events of Revelation 1, A man named Ezekiel was called to be a prophet of God, and Ezekiel wasn't at home when that happened, because he was a prophet of the captivity. He was one of the captives held in Babylon, far from Jerusalem, and Ezekiel's calling was quite unexpected. Ezekiel 1.1 opens with him explaining how he was sitting by the Chebar Canal, outside of Babylon and suddenly the Lord appeared to him. He wrote, I was among the captives by the river Chibar and the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. It strikes me how similar Ezekiel's experience was with the Apostle John here in Revelation, who is also, I picture him looking out over the water. He's far from home, exiled on the island of Patmos. He is contemplating spiritual things when the Lord suddenly appears to him. So let's read this, starting at verse 9. who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. 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 you see, write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned To see the voice that spoke with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about his pap, so the golden girdle, his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which you saw are the seven churches. The first eight verses of Revelation gave us kind of a pre-introduction. It's starting here at verse 9 that John gives his readers a very clear statement of why he's writing. And he's not writing because he felt like it or because, you know, those things in his heart just had to be expressed. It was simply because the Lord appeared to him and said, what you see, write in a book and send it to the churches. Now, in one way, that makes John quite special. He's an apostle of the Lord, was with him during his earthly ministry. John is being, right here, a recipient of what we call direct revelation. This is inspiration at work. And yet our reaction to this is to just think remarkably about how John is the exception, but in reality, he's not. He's the exception in the sense of he's getting direct revelation, Holy Spirit inspiration, but he is not different from us in that we have access to what he had access to. The revelation that John received is right there in your hands this morning. John Piper said it this way, John got the vision, we got the book. That is Jesus meets with John through this Sunday morning vision on the island of Patmos, but Jesus meets with his churches like this on Sunday morning through the reading and the understanding of his word. As we dive into the text this morning, we're going to get exactly what John got. John experienced Jesus. One of the main ideas of this text is that the Lord's churches are with Jesus and experience Jesus. I want us to see three main points this morning. I know having three points is a shock to you. I don't really try to do that. It just sort of works that way. Verses 9 through 11, we'll hear what John heard. Verses 12 through 17, we'll see what John saw, and then verses 18 and 19, and we're actually gonna stop at verse 19 this morning, we'll listen to what Jesus said. The apostle John shows us in this text what it is to be amazed, what it is to be awestruck by Christ, to see him and hear him and know him. So what John heard, Verse 9, as John prepares for us to learn about his experience on this particular day, he begins by reminding the readers first about what his experience was long before this particular day. He says, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience, of Jesus Christ, was on the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He reminds us first that there is this family relationship between believers. He says he's our brother in Christ. He says a companion, the word companion is the same Greek word koinonia for fellowship or participation, partnership that we've seen John use in his letters. Just in this case, he's added this prefix meaning with. He is in fellowship with. He is in partnership with other Christians who read this document. He is a participant with them. They are participants with him as we read this. We participate with him in the common experience of being a disciple of Jesus. Note in verse 9 how he identifies three areas of fellowship among believers. He says we have common tribulation, we have common kingdom, and common patience. The tribulation The affliction that Christians endure is part of the common experience of Christianity. Frankly, if there is never any friction between you and the world, you're doing Christianity wrong. Now, it's not to say that we go and we seek it out. We don't seek it out, but it occurs naturally as we declare Christ for who he is. And for John, we can see that's happened for him. He was at that very moment exiled on the island of Patmos for declaring the gospel, he says. He says for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He was banished for speaking the truth and presenting the gospel. This rocky island of Patmos is about 50 miles from his friends in Ephesus. It's out into the middle of the Aegean Sea. I don't want you to picture it like he's on the island by himself, like it's a lonely place, because my understanding would be it wasn't lonely. He would have had plenty of other people there around, because Patmos was essentially used as a penal colony. Here's how a man named Craig Keener describes it. He says, while banishment was a lesser penalty than execution, we should hardly think John's sentence light. He may have been treated less harshly than others on account of his age or because the governor rather than the emperor sentenced him. But in any case, banishment involved a loss of honor. Unless the government lifted the ban, those banished to an island remained there until they died. Those of higher social status could work on the island and perhaps earn some money. Those of lower status were scourged, a punishment which is known to have laid the person's bones bare, chained, given little food or clothing, left to sleep on the bare ground, and sentenced to hard labor. Now, there is reason to think that the Apostle John didn't experience the worst of that. But the best of that still isn't good. for a man in the first century who is, he's very close to 90 years old at this point. This is a horrible punishment. It's separating him from the friends that would care for him. He's sleeping on the hard ground. He's purposely being removed from the opportunities to continue his life's work. His life's purpose is to declare the gospel of Jesus, and now he's being set aside so that he can't do that through Asia Minor. And yet John doesn't say that he's suffering worse than everybody else. He simply says, I'm your companion in tribulation. We're in this together. He also says he's our companion in the kingdom. It should be evident the very concept of kingdom requires a king, right? Through faith in Jesus, we're brought into citizenship, into the kingdom of God, and we are patiently awaiting. And so John says he's a partnership in our patience. We're patiently awaiting the return of King Jesus, which is what John's going to write about. He's written this letter in a way to make us be in anticipation of what this vision must be. But before revealing the vision, before telling us what he heard, John reminds us of who he is and also who we are in the process. We're participants in this common experience of faith in Jesus. That makes us family. It makes us companion in the afflictions that come. It unites us as kingdom citizens. And the word patience there means endurance. We are all together carrying on under this heavy load, steadfastly awaiting the return of Jesus. One other quick note before we hear what John heard. He puts it into context in verse 10 by saying, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Just that little phrase will preach all day. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. This term, the Lord's day, came to be what the earliest disciples called Sunday, the first day of the week. The earliest believers, even those with a Jewish heritage, soon began to adopt the first day of the week as a special time of worship instead of the Sabbath, the final day of the week. They saw the first day as the most important, since Sunday is the day that the Lord rose from the dead. They celebrated the resurrection day every week. They met more often than just Sundays, but the first day was special. It was the Lord's day. For John, who is this aging man to be separated from the opportunity to worship with his congregation, was doubtlessly difficult for him. He missed it. Listen, let me just be blunt. Our recent experience with COVID has produced within most of us one of two things. We've either yearned for the opportunity to meet with the Lord's people and to worship him in his church, just have this keen awareness of what it is that we've been missing, long for it to return, Or we've learned about ourselves that the motions that we go through on the Lord's Day were really just motions. Didn't miss the assembly that much. Easily replaced by other things that would command our time. Listen, for John, the Lord's Day is special. We can either be in the spirit on the Lord's day, or we can be in a hurry on the Lord's day. I'm not entirely sure we can be both. John says he was in the spirit. I take that to understand that even separated from his congregation to have corporate worship, he was by himself still contemplating spiritual things. He was in the spirit-led contemplation and prayer. Some have read this. as an excuse to say, we'll see there. John was able to worship even though he wasn't at church. Well, if you could go back in time to before the moment that this vision happened and stand on that rocky shoreline of the island of Patmos with the apostle John, and you looked at that old man and asked him, would you like to be back in Ephesus with your congregation? I'm pretty sure his answer would have been, yes, please. He wasn't doing this because he wanted to. John was doing this personal worship because his personal worship was all that he could do. So I dare say that people who use John's experience as an excuse to say, well, I can worship without being at church. I can worship God while out on the riverbank. Listen, most of those folks, their life is not showing any signs that they're going to experience what John experienced. They're not in any danger of getting banished for their obedience to the gospel. Also don't miss that later in the text, when John does see Jesus, where is the Lord at? John describes that he's among these seven candlesticks, and we learn later, those candlesticks are his churches. He's seen on the Lord's day standing amongst his churches. If you want to meet with the Lord, it is not a secret where you will find him. John says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day in verse 10 and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. Now without going even one verse further, We know that John is in the presence of God, just based on verse 10. As he writes, we're gonna see that he makes several allusions to the Old Testament visions of God. And I think the first one is right here in verse 10, because back in Exodus 19, when the Hebrews who were rescued out of Egypt were encamped at the base of Mount Sinai, The meeting with the Lord started like this, according to Exodus 19, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people trembled. But you have to understand, nobody was playing the trumpet at Mount Sinai. John is not hearing the Patmos Island brass band warming up in the distance. The fact is John could understand this sound as a voice. He understands the words. The people who were at the base of Mount Sinai understood the voice of God. So don't imagine John's description here in verse 10, like a trumpet blast, like it was actually sounded like a trumpet because the point is that I think that it was this sharp, loud, distinct clarion call kind of voice. And so as John is in this quiet contemplation on the Lord's day, behind his back rang out the voice of the very creator who spoke the world into existence. That voice is sounding behind John's head. Saying in verse 11, I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. Unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. This voice says he's the first and the last. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is everything from A to Z. So the voice tells John who he is and also gives John a command to follow. What you see, write in a book. Y'all, I read that and my first reaction is I would much, much rather be told, write down what you hear than write down what you see. If that old saying we have, a picture is worth a thousand words, if that's true, you have to understand John's being asked to do this in reverse. I really think grasping the difficulty of this command, write what you see, just might give us an appreciation for some of the symbolism that we struggle with as we go through the book, because what John's seeing, he has to find some way to confine to words. Okay, that's what John heard. Now, what John saw, because it's fair to assume, I think that if somebody snuck up behind your back and blew a trumpet in your ear, the first thing you do is turn around, right? How much more do you think that's true of John, who knows that trumpet-like clarity, and from those commanding words, just who this is, who is speaking to him? This man is approaching 90 years old. It's been over 60 years since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And I have to wonder at John's excitement when he thinks, I remember that voice. I know that voice. Look at verse 12. And I turn to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the middle of the seven candlesticks, one likened to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about his paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, and as white as snow, and his eyes were a flame of fire, and his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shines in a strength." I'm going to ask you to be patient with me as some of these things we'll deal with, Lord willing, next week. These seven stars and the seven candlesticks, although Just quickly, this word candlestick is really the Greek word for lampstand. So don't think like wax burning candles. I expect what John saw and certainly from the wording what his readers would have imagined was that seven branched lampstand like Israel had in the tabernacle and temple. Zachariah had a vision of that same kind of seven-branched lampstand. We've come to know it as a menorah, right? The symbol of Israel. And John says there are seven of these seven-branched lampstands. And he explains… Jesus explains down in verse 20 that these golden lampstands are the seven churches that he just identified. So without dwelling on it for long, I want you to be able to picture it, but I also want to say since… Seven is symbolic of completeness in scriptures. I think the inference here is that each one of these churches are a complete entity all its own. The Lord's church is not a universal, invisible, ethereal nothingness. Every individual assembly is the Lord's church. And he's about to address them individually as well. And we'll deal with more of that next week. But the key to understanding what John saw, I think, is less about these lampstands and more about the fulfillment of Scripture. John is borrowing phrases from the Old Testament, from the book of Daniel specifically, in Daniel 7. The prophet Daniel had a vision in which he sees God. He calls him the Ancient of Days. And that vision included white clothes and white hairs thrown like a fiery flame, the wheels of the throne, the bottom of the throne burning with fire. This is what Daniel says in Daniel 7, 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days. And they brought him near before him, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall never pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed." Daniel saw Jesus. And when John here turns around hoping, I think, to see Jesus as he remembers him from earlier in his life as they walked together. Instead, John sees Jesus in a much different way. He's the son of man, the term that Jesus always applies to himself, decidedly and perfectly human. But John, in seeing him, is keenly aware that this Son of Man, this is Daniel's vision. This is Daniel's Son of Man. And while Daniel saw this perfect example of humanity being brought before the Ancient of Days, for John, this perfect Son of Man is the Ancient of Days. He takes those descriptions of Daniel as he describes the Ancient of Days that the Son of Man came before. And he just takes all of those descriptions and bundles them together to tell us about Jesus. If I can say it like this, John the Apostle, John the old man, sees Jesus as an even older man. I mean, if I asked you the Bible trivia question, who's the oldest man in the Bible? I think most of you could probably answer, well, it's Methuselah. He's the man who lived the longest without dying. But the real answer is Jesus. He's the first and the last. He's the beginning and the end. He didn't come into being when he was born in Bethlehem. Jesus is the ancient of days. And while his life and ministry lasted 33 years, His death did not mark the end of him. He's existed in eternity past, and even if we do measure it from his birth, Jesus is going on 2,000 years old right now. So he appears to John, and John describes, and look, I saw him, and his head, his hair was white like wool, as white as snow. I think the point of that vision is that the son of man is God himself and all his brilliance and holiness and all his aged wisdom. John also sees him as a high priest in verse 13. He describes him, he has this long robe and he has this gold cloth wrapped around his chest. I'm gonna say it looked a lot like a vest, but that would be just me. As the great high priest, Jesus offers the ultimate one time for all time sacrifice for sin. In fact, all of the respected offices, every single title of respect from the Old Testament finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. He's the perfect example of all of them. He is prophet, priest, and king, and we get to see him that way in this book. He's the prophet who is forth telling and foretelling God's plan for the world. He's the priest here as John sees him as this high priest who offers the ultimate sacrifice. He is the coming king who is gonna come and put all the world underneath his submission. Now, Commentators can't quite agree. on what it means in verse 15, that his feet were like fine brass, like they were burned in a furnace, what that's all about. It might be that that's pointing to his strength and stability wherever he stands. It might be as brass is sometimes symbolic of sin and judgment, and Jesus trampled those things under his feet. John MacArthur is convinced that this is Christ's authority over the churches. Y'all, it's not perfectly clear. I'm kind of drawn to John's focus on the book of Daniel. I'm pretty sure there's a story back there of these three Hebrew children who were rescued by one like the son of God standing in that furnace with them. What we do see though is in the end of verse 15, his voice is the sound of many waters. Maybe if we could put ourselves back on that island of Patmos and hear the waves of the Aegean Sea crashing up against that rocky shoreline, we'd get this better. the voice of Jesus is unyielding and cannot be ignored. His is the voice of sovereign authority. It will drown out every other loud sound around it. You know, the closest event that we have to what John's experiencing here is back in the Gospels at the transfiguration of Jesus. And which is same John. saw Jesus as he describes them at the end of verse 16, right? Like the sun shining in its strength or at full strength. But at that event, the voice of the father boomed down from heaven, said, this is my beloved son, hear him. And for 2000 plus years, humanity has been attempting to ignore him. The day is coming when Jesus is revealed in all his glory, and we will not be able to resist hearing him. The unrelenting voice of Jesus will not be ignored. And John, in describing this voice in verse 16, also says, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. The imagery here is drawn from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 4.12 says that the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit. The joints and the marrow is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So the word of God. is like this sharp, two-edged sword. You have to think in John's days, picturing what's called the Roman gladius. The gladius was sharp. It was sharpened on both sides and it was used to slash and to stab. The Word of God likewise is meant To do the same thing, it's meant to pierce into you. It's meant to divide, even to the point of being able to know the difference between what your heart thinks and desires, the thoughts and the intents of the heart. John says, this is what's coming from the mouth of Jesus. It's God's word, and he is the word made flesh. All in all, it's quite a description. the perfect son of man who is himself the eternal God, dressed like a high priest, shining in the brightness brighter than the noonday sun, eyes like fire staring into your soul as words like this sharp double-edged sword. I wish that we could get into John's mind and know what it is that he hoped to see when he turned around. I'm sure at least in some way he saw what he expected. He expected to see Jesus and that's who he saw. And yet this isn't the Jesus that most people see. It's not the Jesus that most people want to see. I'm pretty sure it might not quite be the vision that John was hoping for. And yet it is undeniably true. This is who Jesus is. One thing we obtain from John's vision in Revelation is this kind of clue for helping us decipher all the visions that other people claim to have. When you have these books come out where people have divine visions or near death experiences, or I died for a few hours and I was in heaven and this is what I saw. Call them heavenly tourism books. Invariably, the tone of those stories is just dramatically different than what we find in scripture. There are a lot of people today who claim to have had visions of God, visions of Jesus, and they're just these wonderful, happy experiences. But here's the biblical witness. God told Moses, I can't show you my glory because you can't see me and live. The prophet Isaiah, when he saw God, he responded with, woe is me, I'm undone. It's breaking me to pieces. Job saw the Lord and his response is, well, I've heard of the Lord with my ear, but now I've seen him with my eye and I abhor myself. John, this man is the very apostle who leaned his head back onto the chest of Jesus at the final Passover. He turns around and he sees Jesus and verse 17 says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. Listen to me, when you see Jesus for who he is and all that he is, it is life altering. It is a humility inducing experience that represents the end of everything that you were before. So that's what John heard and what John saw. Now listen to what Jesus said, the end of verse 17. He laid his right hand upon me. Saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. In the gospels, Jesus went up that mountain with his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John. Same John was exiled on the island of Patmos. While up that mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them, his face and his clothes shining like the sun, the voice of the Father thundering down from heaven. This is how Matthew records it in Matthew 17, 6 and 7. When those disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them and said, arise, don't be afraid. And now many decades, a whole lifetime later, John is again face down on the ground on this rocky island of Patmos and he is quaking in the presence of Jesus. And again, Jesus touches him, lifts him up with the words, don't be afraid. Y'all, if you can picture in your mind's eye the vision that John just received, the burning eyes, the sharp sword, the holiness of Jesus shining like staring into the sun, his voice drowning out the crashing waves of the sea. Like if you can get the sight and the sound and the feel of that, how could you ever not be afraid? I don't think this is the Jesus John hoped to see, but at the same time, Jesus is telling him, it's not a different Lord than you put your head on at the Passover dinner. That's what Jesus tells him, I'm the first and the last. Yes, he is God, that title, the first and the last is an Old Testament title for God from Isaiah. But not only is Jesus God, Jesus is also the perfect son of man who John followed for three and a half years. He says, I am he that lives and was dead. Like John, get up, it's me. I know this is not what you expected to see, but this is not different. This is who you followed for three and a half years. John was there walking with Jesus. John was there when Jesus died. Jesus even asked him to take care of his mother, and John knows that. But now Jesus says, look, I'm alive forevermore. The resurrection changed everything. He came in his life and ministry to be that perfect man and to express the righteousness and holiness of God and to save sinners. And having done that, it is not reasonable to expect that he's going to veil that glory forever. In dying on the cross and rising from the dead, Jesus said he obtained the keys of hell and of death. For clarity's sake, I just want you to understand the word hell here is not referring to the place of everlasting punishment. Hell is a real place of real fiery punishment that lasts forever. But the word here that Jesus uses is the word Hades, which essentially means the place of the dead, or think of it as the afterlife, maybe the place beyond death. So think of it this way. He talks about Hades and death. Death is what happens to your body. Hades is where your soul goes. Jesus has the keys to both. He is the authority. He's the determining factor in who lives and who dies and where they go after they die. When it comes to this life and to the life after, Jesus has the keys of Hades and of death. And your position with Jesus is what determines where you're going for eternity and when you'll be going there. That's the purpose of him having died and now being alive forever. When he says, whoever believes in me has everlasting life, it's because all things in regard to life are under his authority. And so John has nothing to fear. Even as he is awestruck by this overwhelming vision of Jesus, the Lord puts his hand on John and lifts him up. Don't be afraid. Stand up, you've got work to do. In verse 19, write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. I said before, verse 19 is a good outline for the entire book of Revelation. Write what you have seen. That's what John has just done. We just read what John has seen. Write the things that are. The next two chapters is the message of Jesus to the churches. Present tense for John. It analyzes their present state. and then write the things which shall be. Starting in Revelation 4, John's vision starts to unfold future events. Listen, you can see John awestruck by this vision of Jesus, literally floored by it. And yet at the end, he is also lifted up by the Lord and given a task ahead. That might be our most important lesson from John in this text. Only faith in Jesus recovers us from fear because he's the first and last, the eternal God, the perfect man, the great high priest who lives forever and was dead and now is alive always. He is the one who is in sovereign control of all things. And just like with John, he says, look, you have to stand up. You have nothing to fear. This is the task I have for you. Just like John, we have no need to fear Jesus when we have faith in him. What he does is he prepares us for the task that's ahead of us. Even as we read what some of the frightening sounding things ahead of us are, he's prepared us for them.