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Welcome to the Cary Baptist Church
radio broadcast entitled Thy Word is Settled in Heaven. I'm
Pastor Ben Donohue. Cary Baptist is in Athens, Alabama. Today we're continuing in our
study and interpretation of the book of Revelation. This is part
two. We're still in chapter one. We're
going to begin reading in verse nine and read a portion of this
chapter as the second part of this study of the book of Revelation.
We're doing a word-for-word interpretation of the great symbols and emblems
and sacred truths that are found in this book. We'll begin in
verse 9 of chapter 1. I, John, who also am your brother
and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience
of Jesus Christ, was in the island 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 thou seest, write in a book and send it unto
the seven churches which are in Asia. unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna,
unto Pergamos, unto Thyatira, unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia,
and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice
that spake 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 the middle with a
golden sash. 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 into fine brass, as if they burned
in a furnace. And his voice is 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 shining in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell down
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, and I am he that
liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and
of death. Write the things that thou hast
seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be
hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest
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. Brother, we're going to end there,
having read down to verse 20. Here in part two of our interpretation
of Revelation, we're going word for word. We want to capture
everything that is here, and we're going to notice that the
book of Revelation in general is a great picture, an emblem
of what future events will take place. We're not going to spend
too much time reviewing the book, but we know at the very end The
devil and his angels are cast in the lake of fire, never to
tempt or ruin men again. And there's a new heaven and
a new earth created, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and the
saints are with God forever in heaven, where there's no sorrow,
no pain, no tears, no crying. That's how the book ends. It
ends in a great victory for the saints and for the Lord Jesus
Christ, but here in chapter 1, we're setting the stage for the
rest that follows. As we mentioned in part 1 that
we looked at before, this is setting the stage and we saw
that Jesus, his deity, He is the one who was, who is, and
who is to come. He's everlasting. And we notice
that he loved us and washed us from our own sin in his own blood.
So there in the beginning of Revelation, we have the redemptive
love of Jesus Christ given to us again. So here we are in verse
nine, and we begin there, today, and he says, I, John, who am
your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom
and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the aisle that is called
Patmos. So he was a man who served God
for many years and he's now locked up on a prison island because
of his testimony for Jesus Christ. He's being persecuted, he's in
prison, but God is going to use him to give us the book of Revelation.
As we said before, John has been preserved, the longest of the
apostles, he's preserved to get this, the last book of the Bible.
Once he writes the last word of the book of Revelation, That
closes the canon of the scripture forever. And so he says, I'm
on this island for the word and testimony of Jesus Christ. And
now he's going to get into the vision. He sets the stage and
he says in verse 10, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.
So God gave him a vision in the spirit. In the spirit, he saw
this vision. And it happened on a day that
is called the Lord's Day. And the Lord's Day is the day
that recognizes the day of his resurrection. That's Sunday,
the first day of the week. And this is indication that the
first century church had a special day called the Lord's Day. And
this is when Jesus began this vision. And he says, I was in
the spirit on that day and heard behind me a great voice has a
trumpet. And we're going to see Jesus
in his glorified state. We're going to see him dressed.
We're going to see some physical attributes explained about Jesus,
including his voice. And these are going to be metaphors
and symbols of his great glory. For example, he has a sharp sword
coming out of his mouth that is an emblem of the power of
the word that he speaks. He has hair white like wool,
like snow, indicates his wisdom, the wisdom of age. Older people,
most of them, or many of them, or some of them we could say,
have the wisdom of age. They've learned a few things
and they have wisdom. Well, white hair indicates age and wisdom. Well, Jesus is supremely wise. So we have these images of Christ
that tell us various attributes and characteristics, especially
showing he's in his glorified state. And so John hears a great
voice, has a trumpet. And this is a startling voice
that wakes him and gains his attention. And the voice says,
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And here again
is a reference to his deity. He's the beginning, he's the
ending. Everything is encircled within that beginning and ending,
the first and the last. And he says, what thou seest,
write in a book and send it to the seven churches. So the last
book of the Bible is going to be a great vision that John's
going to see. He's going to be raptured up
into heaven in this vision. He's going to see heaven. He's
going to see Jesus in heaven. He's going to see many things
in heaven and the purpose is that he's going to write it in
a book and distribute it to the churches. The churches are the
caretakers of the Word of God. The Word of God is a sacred deposit. It's a treasure indeed. We have
here what thou seest, this vision that's going to run throughout
the book. write it in a book, and distribute
it to the churches. Now we have a list of seven churches
in Asia. These are representative churches.
Seven is the number of completion. They represent all churches.
And he lists the seven churches, Ephesus, Myrna, Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Seven churches representing all
churches because the things that were happening in these churches
and the corrections that Christ will give to these churches are
applicable to all churches for all time. So we don't necessarily
ascribe to this approach that each of the seven churches represents
a time period. We don't ascribe to that, though
we've heard good preachers preach on that subject, but we personally
don't ascribe to that. We believe that these were real
actual little churches that had their blessings and their problems,
and they're going to be addressed by Jesus in chapter two and three,
but they're also representative of all churches. The problems
they have in these seven churches are problems that all churches
can have. Not every church has every problem.
Not every church has every blessing enumerated. But generally, they
represent the churches. Each of these churches is different.
You can see that in chapter 2 and chapter 3. There's a different
word given to each church. And so we believe these instructions,
seven churches, are applicable to all churches and worthy of
all dispensations and all time periods. There'll be churches
like Ephesus throughout the entire church history. There'll be churches
like Laodicea. You can find them throughout
church history. So we don't ascribe to seven periods. We do ascribe
to representative churches, representing all churches. Now verse 12, and
I turn to see the voice that spake with me. And I being turned,
I saw seven golden candlesticks. So the first thing that John
sees are seven candlesticks. They're representative of the
church, and what a good and fitting representation. A candlestick
is something you carry into a dark room or a dark place, and that
candlestick gives light. And so too the churches are to
give light, the light of Jesus Christ. He is the light of the
world. And Jesus called his own disciples in the Sermon of the
Mount in Matthew 5, you're the salt of the earth, you're the
light of the world. A good church that is following Christ, that
is faithful to Christ, will be like light in a dark place. And
what a fitting image churches are candlesticks. They have the
light of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the commandments
of God, and the word of God, and the teaching and sermons
of the apostles. The churches are a candlestick
that light the earth, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks,
one like the Son of Man. Again, we have the number seven,
like we have the seven churches of Asia. Seven is the number
of completion, so the seven stands for all. Among them is one like
the Son of Man. This teaches us that Jesus, He's
not in heaven, divorced from the church, far away. No, He's
working in the churches. He is in the churches, working
His will. Wherever two or three gather
together, there I am in the midst of you. How about Matthew 28,
the Great Commission? Go ye therefore and make disciples
of all nations, and lo, I am with you even to the end of the
age. And John is seeing Jesus walking among the candlesticks.
He's active in the churches. And Jesus is with his people.
He'll never leave nor forsake his people. Jesus is concerned
about the churches. It's his organization. It's his
institution. He's the head of the church.
He is the husband of the bride of Christ, which is the church.
And John says, he saw him clothed with a garment down to the foot
and gird about the middle with a golden sash. Now perhaps he
has a long robe to signify that he's functioning in the priest's
office. Jesus is our high priest. The
priest had long flowing robes. And perhaps this is a picture
of the mediatorial office of Jesus, who operates as a high
priest. The book of Hebrews tells us we have a high priest. And
Christ ever liveth to make intercession for them. Around his chest, or
his middle, is a golden sash. Now the King James Version, which
I always read, says he has girt about the paps with a golden
girdle. But I take that as easier to
understand. He's girt about the middle or
the chest with a golden sash. Gold is a signification of purity. And his head, and his hairs were
white like wool, we've already referred to that, has the wisdom
of age, and Christ has infinite wisdom. And now here's an interesting
characteristic that John sees, and his eyes were as a flame
of fire. I believe this is a powerful
and good emblem. It tells us that Jesus can see
through all facades and false fronts. He can see through the
play acting of people. He can see into their hearts.
He knows and can seize immediately their motivations, their intentions,
their history, their thoughts. Nothing is hidden from Jesus
Christ. And I believe that is what is
meant by his eyes were as a flame of fire, that he can see all. that the front and facade and
false impressions that people can give to others and even mislead
them, misrepresent themselves and they can fool some of the
people some of the time. But Jesus is never fooled because
he sees the heart. He sees right into the heart.
Also his eyes were a flame of fire could refer to his sight
of the future. He sees all things in the future
completely and perfectly. And so we have piercing vision
to see through things and to see the future. And indeed, this
is a picture of Christ in his heavenly splendor. And his feet
were like fine brass as they burned in a furnace. Now I take
this to mean judgment. Furnace represents fire, which
is representing of judgment. And brass is a metal that represents
judgment. And so Jesus is also the judge.
Jesus said in Matthew, all judgment has been committed unto the Son
that men may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Now we
see in verse 16 that he had in his right hand seven stars, and
out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. A two-edged
sword would be his word. That word can tear down and build
up. That word can judge and encourage. Out of his mouth is this holy
emblematical. Jesus uses his word to accomplish
his will. He speaks things into existence,
and he judges by his word. So his word has a sharp sword
that accomplishes much. and his countenance was as the
sun shining in his strength." Again, this representation of
the divine glory of Jesus Christ. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Peter, James, and John saw Jesus on the mountain, transfigured
with Moses and Elijah on each side of him. John had seen this
once before. It tells us of the glory and
the majesty and the awesomeness of Jesus in his heavenly state. And John sees this, so great
is the sight, So awesome is the sight that it says, and when
I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. John, the disciple whom
Jesus loved, a choice servant of Christ, a great apostle of
Christ, fell down as dead before Jesus Christ. Jesus is Jehovah
God. John sees him in his heavenly
splendor. Back on earth, when Jesus was on the earth, Jesus
was in his humble state. He laid down some of his prerogatives
temporarily to be a humble servant, to die on a cross. Now in heaven,
John sees him in all of his heavenly glory and splendor, and it's
too much for him, and he falls at Jesus' feet as if he was dead. And brethren, God is an awesome
God. And God is light and in him is no darkness. And we're
being reminded of the majesty of Jesus Christ. But notice,
we also see his grace and mercy in operation. And Jesus put his
right hand upon John, saying unto him, fear not, I am the
first and the last. Yes, God is an awesome king.
His majesty fills heaven, but he's also a loving, merciful
God. And he raises John up and he
puts him on his feet. Because his purpose is not to
overawe John, his purpose is to communicate with John some
glorious and necessary and sacred truths. Because John is going
to be the spokesman that will speak to the church, write to
the church, and God is interested in communicating these great
truths in Revelation. to the church through John. So
the Lord Jesus is going to communicate to John. He's preserved John
to receive this book, and John is going to be his penman to
write this truth for us today. So brethren, we're about out
of time. We see in this part of the book of Revelation that
John sees a glimpse of Jesus in his heavenly glory. He sees
these great attributes, characteristics, and virtues of Jesus. He sees
him dressed as a priest. He sees him with a sword coming
out of his mouth. And this would indicate that
Jesus is both king and priest together. Brother, we're going
to have to end it here because we're about out of time. I'll
remind you, you've been listening to the Cary Baptist Church radio
broadcast. Cary Baptist is in Athens, Alabama.
We're in our 101st year as a church. We started in 1923. I'm Pastor
Ben Donohue, and I want to thank you for listening, and I hope
you join us again next time. And until then, we'll say goodbye. Thank you for joining us on today's
broadcast. If you have any questions or
want more information about Cary Baptist Church, you can find
us on the web at carybc.com. That is C-A-R-E-Y-B-C dot C-O-M. May the Lord richly bless you
as you tune in again for Thy Word is Settled in Heaven.
The Book Of Revelation: Part II: Rev 1: 9-20 Christ In His Heavenly Glory
Series Book Of Revelation
| Sermon ID | 6132513853259 |
| Duration | 17:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Bible Text | Revelation 1:9-20 |
| Language | English |
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