The reading is found in your bulletins, page 18, reading from the Majority Text Translation. And there I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed down to the feet and girded at the chest with a golden belt. Now his head, that is his hair, was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like fine brass, as when refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. And he had seven stars on his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as if dead. And he placed his right hand upon me saying, do not fear. I am the first and the last, even the living one. I became dead to be sure. And now I am living forever and ever. Amen. And I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore, write the things that you have seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to occur after these. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw upon my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars of the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands that you saw are seven churches. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word, and we pray that as we dig into it, that you would quicken that word to our hearts, draw our hearts out to you, transform us, cause us, the catechism question that we looked at earlier spoke about, cause us to grow in you, to be sanctified by you. May the preaching of the word truly be a means of grace in each of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Before we even dig into the passage, I want to point out that there are a lot of allusions to other passages in this passage here. Allusion, A-L-L-U-S-I-N, not illusion, but allusion. And allusion within literature is either a subtle or it can be a more obvious reference to some famous person or to a place or character trait or something else in literature. And the purpose for those allusions is a shortcut way of communicating mood, context, potential dangers, maybe foreshadowing something that's coming up. or developing character, etc. And there are some movies that are so filled with allusions to other movies or to literature or pieces of art or other things that are out there that you would miss a lot of what that movie is communicating if you weren't familiar with what was being alluded to. Now, for example, in the Disney animation Hercules, there's one very, very brief scene where the hero raises his leg in a profile shot that is identical to the shot in Karate Kid. It's very iconic pose that's there. If you were to superimpose one upon the other, it's very deliberate. And if you've never seen the movie Karate Kid, you'd completely miss it. You wouldn't know what it was saying. But if you have seen Karate Kid, you immediately know this is symbolic. This is like foreshadowing that even though there's going to be a struggle, Hercules is going to win. the big battle. The animated movie Hoodwinked, which is a fun take on Little Red Riding Hood, has references to Chevy Chase's Fletch character, the Matrix, Mission Impossible, as well as all kinds of fairy tales and and other things like that. Shrek is absolutely chock full of references to fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other pop culture symbols like Farbucks. It's a drink that they're drinking, supposed to be like Starbucks. And that one probably doesn't have any significance. It's just a throwaway line in there. Almost, with very few exceptions, there are a few exceptions, but most of these allusions instantly clue you into something that might otherwise take some time to develop. It's a very easy way to set context, mood, or a direction for your expectations. And even serious movies do this. Now, here's the point. It would really spoil the effect of the movie if I stopped the movie every two to three minutes to explain, okay, this is an illusion here, and this is where it came from, and this is what it meant back there, and now this is what it means in this context here. No, you watch the movie, you either get it or you don't get it. And the same is true with the book of Revelation to some degree. Now, I as an academic am constantly tempted to tease apart the movie and explain all of these different things and where they come from and make it a little bit heavy. And a couple of you have mentioned that to me and said, you know, Phil, There's a little bit too much analysis that's going on. And so to compromise, what I am doing is on each one of these sermons, I am making a little chart that has the text that we have gone through, and then it's going to have all around that chart some of the major allusions. There's no way I could get all of the allusions in there, but some of the major ones that are on there. Now, just looking at that chart, that's not going to help you out very much, but at least it's going to show you where I'm getting what I'm going to be preaching on, where I'm getting it from, and I don't have to get into all of the academic background. You can go to the commentaries to read that. Now, I've titled the sermon, What Does Jesus Do on Sunday?, because even though it's dealing with a particular Sunday, or what verse 10 calls the Lord's Day. That's the day of the week that's been set us apart to the Lord. I still believe that it gives us a picture of what Jesus does on every Lord's Day. And the first thing he does is he meets with his churches. Just as God the Son came to Adam and Eve walking in the garden on the first Lord's Day, In Genesis chapter 3, he comes to walk in the midst of the churches here. Take a look at verses 12 through 13. There I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like a son of man clothed down to the feet and girded at the chest with a golden belt. I'm going to have more to say about the second half of verse 13 in a bit, but I think it's obvious that Jesus is here meeting with the churches. He's walking in their midst. Now, in Zechariah, the story that's being alluded to there, there was only one lampstand, and that one lampstand, you know, sort of like a menorah, it had seven branches on it, and on top of each branch there was a light, and so in the Old Testament figure, the temple had seven lights to light the holy place. And it goes on to talk about the overflow of the Holy Spirit into the life of faithful Israel, and that was symbolized by a constant pouring of oil, olive oil, into those lamps. So it's a pretty cool image in Zechariah, but here in Revelation it isn't just one lampstand and seven lights. It's seven lampstands, each of which has seven branches and seven lights. And so there's 49 lights that are shining in Asia Minor. Since each light represents a local congregation, and each lampstand represents the city presbytery, we're talking about a lot of churches being symbolically represented in chapters 2 through 3, and Jesus is in the midst of those churches. So that's the first obvious point. He meets with us. When we come to church, we don't just come to meet with the pastor and the elders and the deacons and with other fellow believers. We come to meet with Jesus. We need to have spiritual eyes. Say, Lord, open my eyes to be able to sense what it is that you are doing, what you're drawing out in my heart. Give me ears, spiritual ears that can hear your voice speaking to me in the scriptures. In Revelation 3, verse 20, Jesus gives this invitation to every member of the church. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me. Meeting with the church is one of Christ's central functions on every Sunday. It's called the day of his presence and we should come with expectations of meeting him. It's his special day. It's a set apart day where he is willing to manifest his presence in a special way. Now the rest of verse 13 shows that Jesus walks among these candlesticks with a very specific role as a priest. He has a priestly ministry to us on Sunday. It says, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like a son of man clothed down to the feet and girded at the chest with a golden belt. Now even though he's going to be presented as a king as well in verses 14 through 16, Beal and other commentaries point out that the way that he is closed is emphasizing his priesthood. So why would a priest be walking in the midst of the temple's lampstands? Some speak of his other ministry that is done in the light of those lampstands, and there may be something to that. I personally think it's emphasizing the ministry that the priest is doing to the lampstands, but let me briefly mention what some people think. In the Old Testament, the priest would use those lights to see what was going on in the holy place. it would be pitch dark inside of that holy place without those lamps. So when the lamps are burning, he can see over here the table of showbread, that's communion. He can see over here the altar of incense, that's the prayers. And so they say that this is talking about the whole ministry of the church. And that may be true, but the Old Testament priest also had a ministry of working on the lampstands themselves, and I think that better fits the context of chapters 2 through 3 and what Jesus is doing. The Old Testament priest would inspect the lamps every day, would fill the lamps with oil, would trim the wicks, and would make sure that the lamps were fully functioning. So I think it's just a beautiful, beautiful image of Christ's priestly ministry in the church today. And since the Zachariah passage spends so much time on Christ's work as advocate and intercessor, which is a priestly work, I want you to turn there with me. Zachariah is the second to last book of the Bible, and I want to read just the first few verses from chapter 3. And let me give you the context that's going on behind this. This was being written in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and it was very troublesome days. There were enemies outside trying to destroy the work. There were enemies inside, intrigues. There were brethren who were stabbing them in the back. Now there was greed, there was immorality, there was anything that Satan could throw at them to keep them ineffective. I think Ezra and Nehemiah is just a beautiful image of the kind of struggles that the churches in the first century were going through. But anyway, Ezra and Nehemiah are showing the enemies that are visible, that we can see with our senses. Zechariah is going back behind the scenes and saying, hey, there's angels and there are demons that you need to consider and factor into everything that's going on. It's much like what Revelation is doing. So take a look at Zechariah 3, and we're going to begin reading at verse 1. Now the implication of that last phrase is that Joshua was worthy of hellfire, but God had like a brand of the fire had plucked him and saved him from hell. But just because he's saved does not mean he does not continue to sin. He does. He is clothed in filthy rags. And as long as he is wearing those filthy rags, Satan takes advantage of him. There is an ongoing need for Christ's high priestly work. Even the high priest in the Old Testament needed it. Verse 3, now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, was standing before the angel. Filthy garments represent the ongoing sins in a believer's life, and Satan is using those sins as legal ground to resist Joshua and to resist his ministry. Zechariah is getting nowhere in his prayer life, getting nowhere in his ministry as long as he is wearing those filthy garments. And Satan knows it. That's why Satan is standing at his right hand. And this passage shows how we continually need the cleansing of Christ we continually need the righteousness of Christ. Paul does not say in Ephesians that we put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness once at the beginning of our life and then we forget about it. Every day we need to resort to that if we're going to be effective in our spiritual warfare against Satan. Verse 4, Then he answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes. And I said, Let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the angel of the Lord stood by." So once Joshua is cleansed, And all of the legal ground has been removed from Satan, reclaimed, and given to the Lord once he is clothed from head to foot in Christ's provisions God can hear his prayers and the rest of his ministry is going to be effective. Once his sins have been dealt with, Satan cannot stand at his right hand and there's nothing that can hinder his prayers. So Zechariah 3, Jesus is acting as a high priest to the earthly priest. This is the kind of ministry, priestly ministry, that Jesus engages in among the candlesticks. He makes our prayers, our worship, and our service acceptable to God. Now, just briefly, I'll mention that in Zechariah 4, Christ makes sure that the candlesticks have oil. The power of the Holy Spirit is needed continually in a believer's life, and that's why Paul says that we must continually be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I'm not gonna belabor all of the background of the lamp stands in Revelation 2 through 3, but I think it's clear from the temple imagery that lamps must be maintained by the priests. They have wicks that need to be trimmed and cleaned or they start going out, they start getting smoky. In Revelation 2 through 3, Jesus does cleaning, trimming, and intervention in the life of the church to make sure that those lights do not go out. That's the whole point. He inspects the churches. Now, does He use humans as agents of this priestly work? Yes, He does. He did so in Zechariah, and He does so in Revelation. Like Joshua the high priest, and Zerubbabel, and other human agents in Zechariah, we officers are sinful too. We have filthy garments too and we need Christ's ministry. But weak as we are, God uses officers like Joshua and Rodney and Gary and myself as minister of the mysteries of God. It's just the way He has chosen to do it. Now let me explain the stars on the hand. Revelation 120 interprets them as ungoloi, which is the Greek word for messengers. And I believe that these are human earthly messengers, not heavenly messengers. A lot of reasons I believe that. I think two are sufficient to give to you. One is that God or Jesus rebukes these messengers for their own sin, as well as for allowing sins to go on in their churches. Well, he's not going to do that with a perfect angel in heaven. So that's the first indication that he's talking about a human messenger. The second is that in the majority text in Revelation 2, verse 20, he says that one of these, he talks about the wife of one of these messengers. Well, according to Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, angels don't have wives. They don't get married. So it's another indication he's talking about human messengers, not heavenly messengers. So pastors are called by God to represent Christ's priestly work, which would be prayer and the sacraments, His prophetic work, that would be the ministry of the Word, and His kingly work, rule and discipline, But we do not have inherent power in ourselves to do that. We minister Christ's grace, not our own. We minister Christ's mysteries, not our own. We minister His rule, not our own. So unlike Rome, which claims to exercise magisterial power within the church, We only have ministerial power. We're just message boys for Christ, okay? We do not have magisterial power. Pastors sometimes joke by saying, don't shoot the messenger, but that's not a legitimate saying unless the only message we are bringing is the message of Christ. You can shoot the messenger if it's his own message, right? But we are bringing people to Christ and we're bringing Christ's words to the people. And so, That means that we officers are not substitute priests for Christ. After 70 AD, Jesus is the only priest of the church, the only king of the church, and the only prophet of the church. And he administers all three offices through the scriptures, the sacraments, discipleship, and discipline. So the kind of garments he wears in verses 13 and following show him to be a priest, But he is a very special kind of priest, because he's a king as well. Just like Melchizedek in the book of Genesis was both a priest and a king, Jesus is both a priest and a king. And the allusions to Daniel 7 show that Jesus was already enthroned at the right hand of the Father as king. His kingdom has already come. He's already been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Well, what does a king do? In verse 11, the king commands. That's a kingly function. He says, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. But it's in verses 14 through 16, I think, that you especially see the kingly functions of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are eight clear parallels of language between this passage and the Son of Man passage in Daniel chapter 7, where Jesus inherits the kingdom from the ancient of days. Take a look at verse 14. Now his head, that is, his hair was white like wool, as white as snow. Now what's really odd about this is that Revelation applies the description that Daniel 7 verse 9 applies to the Ancient of Days and says Jesus looks like that. See, Jesus ascends in Daniel 7. He ascends to the right hand of the Ancient of Days. So why is he describing Jesus as looking like the Ancient of Days? And the reason is that Jesus is both man and God. Jesus is the Son of God and He is just as ancient just as eternal, we speak of the co-eternality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He's just as ancient as the ancient of days. So He's sharing in these phrases with the attributes of God the Father. Just as the white hair symbolizes the antiquity of both, calling it as white as snow focuses on having the same moral purity. He goes on, he says, "...and his eyes were like a flame of fire." Almost all my commentaries agree that this points to the penetrating gaze of the One who knows all things. His eyes burn right through to the inner soul and they see the secrets of your life. You cannot come into church here, you can hide your life from us. But you cannot come into church and hide from the penetrating gaze of the Lord Jesus Christ. His eyes are like a flaming fire, and it's only as you are covered with the priestly blood of Christ, the priestly work, that you can endure the gaze of His kingly work. Now, when those eyes are combined with the white hair, it also gives the impression of a wise judge. Continuing on in verse 15, And his feet were like fine brass, as when refined in a furnace. Now throughout scripture you will find that feet are a symbol for dominion. You know, when you put your feet upon the land, you're taking dominion of the land. And one of the interesting things about Daniel's image that there's a confrontation between the kingdoms of this world and Christ's kingdom. Well, the kingdoms of humanism, what is the feat made of? The feat is made of a mix of iron and clay which don't mix. It's a very unstable mixture which will break and fall apart. The meaning is pretty obvious, that humanism is not designed to last forever. In contrast, Christ's feet are likened to bronze, which will last forever. And since this is bronze that is purified and refined, there is nothing that can diminish Christ's enduring dominion. Verse 15 continues, And his voice was like the sound of many waters. Now likening Christ's voice to the powerful, huge oceans and their waves, I think is a wonderful image of the power behind Christ's voice. But when you realize that this is an allusion to Ezekiel 43 verse 2, you instantly know that this is yet another example of Jesus being called divine. Because, now he's going to amplify on the divinity of Christ a little bit later here, but The figure in Ezekiel 43 verse 2 has a voice that sounds like many waters and it's a divine king. This is the kind of king who protects us. This is the kind of king who expands his kingdom. And now comes an interesting question in verse 16. How does Jesus expand his kingdom? And the answer is through human agents. The next phrase says, and he had seven stars on his right hand. Now the right hand throughout scripture is the symbol of power and authority. Okay, so his right hand symbol of power and authority, but there are seven stars that share in that power and that authority. And the Greek is quite clear that it's not seven stars who are within Christ's hand, but seven stars on His hand. A P with the genitive always means on. Now, we're not told if it's on the palm or on the back of the hand, we're just told it's on His hand. But it's clear it's not within a grasp of His hand, so that means it's not emphasizing the protective care of God, it's emphasizing representation. the representation of Christ's power and authority. They minister His power and authority. And that's an amazing thing when you think about it, because verse 20 says that the stars are the seven human messengers. They're ordinary officers of the church of Jesus Christ, and yet these officers represent the reign of Christ. When you think about it, it's really an astounding statement that Christ would use ordinary sinful human messengers to represent His authority, yet that's exactly what He does. The Apostle Paul told Pastor Titus this, speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Titus had zero authority if he spoke anything else than what Jesus commissioned him to speak. But when he speaks Christ's words, he has all the authority of Christ's power, his hand, backing him up. And you can pray for the elders that they would stay close to the hand of Christ and not wander. I think it's interesting that false teachers are called wandering stars in Jude chapter, in Jude verse 13. Why are they wandering stars? Because they're not reliable in their exercise of authority. Those false teachers were not glued to Christ's hand. Okay, that's the problem with cults. They inevitably, cults inevitably assume their own authority and they add to the scripture. So scripture pictures cultist authority as wandering stars and true authority as stars on Christ's hand. I think that's very significant. So long as elders stay on Christ's hand, they have the authority of his hand to back them up. We can never replace Christ We can only represent Christ. But don't ever diminish the authority of elders who minister in the church as stewards of the mysteries of God. And that is so different from the way that the modern house church movement operates, which is so egalitarian. It's just very wrong. Elders have true authority in Christ Jesus. Now this principle of only acting under the authority of Jesus is also true of the prophetic ministry of Jesus. Church officers must never speak on their own. I couldn't find the place where Morecraft said it. I was searching for this. But I remember listening to one of Morecraft's sermons where he summarized one Puritan who said that the only voice that should be heard in the church is the voice of Jesus speaking through the scriptures. And I like that. That's the only authority that we have. People should not be coming to the church to listen to Phil Kaiser or listen to Rodney Schwab or Gary. or to anyone else, they should be listening to the voice of Jesus walking in the midst of the candlesticks. But His voice is heard through the faithful preaching of the Word, if we have ears to hear. And of course, that's the constant refrain, isn't it, in the seven letters, he who has an ear, let him hear. And so where his hand represents his rule and authority, his mouth represents his prophetic scriptures. So the second half of verse 16 shows the third thing that Jesus does on Sunday. It says, "...and a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth." Isaiah 49 verse 2 had long identified the coming Messiah as the one whom God the Father would make His mouth into a sword. And so most commentaries say this is a clear allusion to that passage. Anything that Jesus has spoken via the Scriptures is sharper than any two-edged sword, and His prophetic power continues to produce results in the church. Just as elder rule has no power if Christ's hand is not backing it up, elder teaching has no power if Christ's mouth is not backing it up. And this is why we need to pray for your elders. We need to pray that the elders would have the anointing of Christ's Holy Spirit in their lives. And if we don't have that, without Jesus... My words are just going to fall to the ground and they're not going to amount to a hill of beans. They will not have any impact on people's lives. And yet the Word of God still, the Scripture says, is powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword when we have Jesus anointing in our ministry. Douglas Kelly recounts a time when he heard a country preacher saying that The Word of God is the only sword that you can stick into a dead fellow, and that dead fellow will come to life. And that's the weirdness about this sword. You think of it as only a killing sword, and yet in the context that he gives in Isaiah, it's missions. It's a sword that draws multitudes to Christ, so it's a life-giving sword. But you keep reading, you also realize, okay, it's a sword that brings judgment as well. And so this book will go on to demonstrate that the Word of Scripture not only brings life, the life of missions in Isaiah, but it also brings judgment. It has the power to bring God's discipline upon individuals and upon churches. It has the power to overcome Satan and make him flee. It has the power to overcome nations. There are powerful results when we affirm the Scriptures by faith, in the power of the Spirit, and with Jesus backing us up. And I'll hasten to say that that is not automatic and it's not magical. You can't ward off demons by sticking a Bible under your pillow, okay? It's got to be taken by faith and affirmed on our lips. In fact, you're going to hear me until you're almost sick of it. Well, hopefully not sick of it, but we'll have memorized it. The passage in Revelation chapter 12, that they overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. It's when by faith we affirm out loud, not just silently read, but we affirm out loud the Word of the Scriptures that we see a power that comes in it. So we're speaking the Word against Satan, and it's Jesus Himself who forces those demons to flee. Now this transitions so naturally into the last thing that describes Christ's work on Sunday. He is God and He supernaturally works in the church as God. So the church is a place where supernatural things should happen. It could be supernatural discipline, you know, through the Lord's table. Some were sick, some were weak, some had even died because of God's judgments through the Lord's table. So there's supernatural discipline, supernatural healing, supernatural insight, supernatural conviction, etc. The last phrase of verse 16 says, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. Now, in the Old Testament, when God's countenance was likened to the sun shining in its strength, it's either dealing with judgment of enemies or blessing upon God's people. Let me just read you one sample verse. You don't need to turn there, but this is one of the passages that's a background. Daniel 10, 5 through 6. I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude. Now the result was everybody that was near Daniel, they took off, they ran, they were scared to death of seeing this. Daniel himself stuck around but was so overwhelmed he fell on his face and he couldn't move. He lost all strength in his body. But the Old Testament man, glorious man, told Daniel not to fear that he was greatly beloved, touched him, strengthened him, lifted him up. And we see a similar action on behalf of the apostle John here. Revelation 1, 17 through 18. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if dead, and he placed his right hand upon me saying, do not fear, I am the first and the last, even the living one. I became dead to be sure, and now I am living forever and ever, amen. And I have the keys of death and Hades. The title of the living one, is a divine title for Jehovah in the Old Testament. Likewise, the title, The First and The Last, was a title that was only used of Jehovah in the Old Testament. So if you want another go-to passage to prove the deity of Jesus, this is a great passage to turn to. And here's the question, okay, he's divine, he's being called like, has the same titles as God does in the Old Testament, so why would he say don't be afraid if he has come face to face with Almighty God? You know, it's a fearful thing, Scripture says, to fall into the hands of a living God. He's a consuming fire. Why would he not be afraid? But you see, just as God showed love to Daniel, this passage shows that God the Son loved John, touched him, spoke enormous words of comfort to him. Now, John may have wondered where God was when he was languishing in prison. Yet Jesus has all power in heaven and on earth, all divine power. He literally calls himself the I Am. Well, that's the same name that God gave to Moses when Moses was fearful. And the impact of that was, it doesn't matter what your needs are, Moses, I am sufficient to meet those needs. Jesus is sufficient to meet all of the needs of the church that's facing difficult times that he's going to be talking about in the first century. The Isaiah passages where God calls himself the first and the last are passages that show that God existed before there were any worlds. He created this universe. He is the one who brings judgments upon nations and sustains nations. He raises up kings. He casts down kings. He says he was totally sufficient to handle the monstrous kingdom of Babylon back then. Well, he's just as sufficient to handle the monstrous kingdom of Rome in John's day. So just the allusion to the first and the last passages would have brought enormous comfort to John. It's an instant clue of a context of victory. But he also reminds John that he had sacrificed his life for him, that his resurrection was the sure guarantee of his triumph over his enemies. He even had the keys of death and Hades. Now the interesting thing about that phrase, if you own the keys to something, You own the thing. Well, this means that Jesus is the owner of death. You might say, well, that's a strange thing to be an owner of. Well, he's the owner of all things, isn't it? But if he's the owner of death, you are invincible. He could not die until it was God's time for him to die. So cheer up, John. You're in the center of my will, and I can protect you. And we can have the same comfort that it's impossible for us to die until it's God's time for us to die. Why? He has the keys of death. Nobody else does. Jesus does. So on that Sunday in 66 AD, Jesus was ministering His grace to John and to the churches of Asia Minor. He was able to effectively bring rebuke and correction. He was able to effectively bring comfort and joy. He was able to remove fear. He was able to instill faith. And He continues to walk in the midst of the candlesticks today. So the next question comes, what should we do on Sunday? And the answer is, well, just respond appropriately to Christ, right? First, listen to his prophetic word. When Jesus gave these scriptures to the Apostle Paul, it wasn't for his edification alone. He gave it for the churches, and as you go through the letters, you realize he gave it to each individual of the church. So if we're neglecting the scriptures, we are neglecting Christ's prophetic ministry. We are neglecting him as the prophet. These are the prophetic scriptures, Romans 16, 26. Now in verse 12, the moment John hears Christ's voice, he turns around to listen. And we should let the two-edged sword of verse 16 do its work in our lives as well. Blaney says of the Bible, It bruises in order to bless. It cuts in order to cure. It hurts in order to heal. It proclaims retribution as well as restoration, judgment as well as mercy. Now, I don't blame you for not liking to hear some of the things that I preach from the pulpit, but I would encourage you to welcome the message as from Christ, if you can see it in the Bible. Don't run from it. Do like the Apostle John, turn to Christ and say, Lord, let your sword do its surgery on my heart. I welcome your prophetic ministry, even when the word stings. Secondly, go where Jesus goes, to the church. Where was Jesus in verses 12 through 13? He was in the churches. So if you want to meet with Jesus, go where Jesus is on Sunday. Go to the churches. Not just any church. He wasn't in Laodicea. But go to a church that is trying to follow Christ faithfully, however imperfect that may be. Thirdly, receive his priestly work of trimming and filling. We daily need the Holy Spirit. We daily need to have our wicks trimmed and the bad spots cut out of the wicks. We daily need the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And when He convicts, don't ignore the conviction. He is doing it to make your light shine. Next, yield to His kingship. Now you could do this very literally by bowing down on the ground just like John does in verse 17. But here's the cool thing about John. Because John's heart was always in submission to God, he didn't have to be on his knees all the time, Jesus lifts him up and lets him stand in his presence. That's an amazing thing that he can stand in the presence of Almighty God. We too can come boldly before the throne of God if and only if we have submitted to His priestly work of trimming the lamps. You don't dare go into the Holy of Holies, which is the most inner place, that's where His throne room was, unless we've gone there through the outer court Well, actually, even the brazen altar. You've got to get saved first. And then through the furniture of the outer court, through the furniture of the holy place, and then you go into the throne room. You cannot take that passage in Hebrews where it says, come boldly to the throne of grace, out of context. The context is, he is still consuming fire. that can consume even believers, so we dare not come into the Holy of Holies without first being ministered to by His priestly work. Another way that we can yield to His kingship is by trusting His providence. The resurrected Christ of verse 18 rules history. He rules your life. He has the keys that can send you to death or can keep you alive. But we can have joy in that fact when we submit to his kingship rather than resisting it. We can yield to his kingship by embracing his law word. When Jesus commands John, In verse 19, therefore write the things that you have seen and the things that are and the things that are about to occur after these. He wanted John to write, why? Because he wanted the church to have more of his word. Okay, the more we embrace of his law word, the more we will rejoice in his kingship. But the last way in which we can yield to His kingship is by submitting to His representatives in the church. Not a blind submission, we've already seen that, but a submission in the Lord. So verse 20 says, the mystery of the seven stars which you saw upon my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches and the seven lampstands that you saw are the seven churches. Now there are profound implications for church government, what we like to label ecclesiology, that are found in here. I'm in the process of writing for Presbytery some of the implications of Revelation for church government. One of the things that you see clearly in Revelation is that The New Testament Presbyterian church government 100% parallels the Old Testament synagogue system of church government. Now, I don't have the time to get into all of that kind of stuff, but I just want you to see that there are a lot of riches that we're leaving out that we could dig for. But I do want to especially mention a few things because you're always confronted with Roman Catholics in this city. And I think this is a great corrective to them. Rome has irrigated way too much power to itself. First, Rome elevated one star or messenger above all of the other stars. But Christ gives equal authority to each of the messengers. They're all on His right hand. Christ didn't give the keys of the kingdom only to Peter. He did give them to Peter. But in another passage, he gives them to all of the apostles. And in another passage, the apostles give the keys of the kingdom to the elders of the church. So he did not elevate one above the other. Second, as I've already shown, those messengers have no authority to bring their own message. The only message that they can bring are the scriptures that Christ commanded them to bring. They have no authority beyond the scripture. Well, that automatically means that the scriptures are higher than the messengers. And that the messengers better only bring the scriptures and the scriptures alone. Well that's such a blatant contradiction to Rome that claims to be the mother of the church. They can add to it, they can take away from it. They claim to be the mother of the church, to have authority, not the mother of the church, mother of scripture they call themselves, to have authority over the scripture. and that the Scriptures are not sufficient. We say, no, absolutely not. Third, even though it is true that these messengers were the representatives for all of the churches in their city, in other words, they got the mail for Presbytery, and they were the voice speaking on behalf of Presbytery, those seven bishops or those seven elders functioned somewhere between the capacity of a stated clerk or a moderator. in our denomination, just like in the synagogue system. This is the way they function for the first four to five hundred years of church history. And interestingly, elsewhere, all elders are called by the same term, messengers. I won't give you all of the scriptures here, but elders are not inferior to these stars. We simply bring the messages that Jesus commissioned us to bring. And even the way that this image constructed shows multiple lampstands and it shows that each presbytery has the full function of a church does not have a top-down government dictating everything for the presbytery now the fact that all of the lampstands are in a spiritual temple shows the unity of the church worldwide but then there's the the General Assembly of Asia Minor, and there's other General Assemblies. And then each presbytery has one lampstand with multiple lamps on it showing a unity But it's a clear rejection of the Episcopal system of Rome, and since Acts shows that each of these city churches was composed of numerous local congregations, I think the figure of multiple branches on the city lampstand, with a light on each branch, fits Presbyterian polities so well. Each local church, which is one lamp, has the full presence of the Holy Spirit in its life. Okay? Has Christ, the risen Savior, at work in her midst, and yet is bound together with a presbytery of other local congregations to show a united witness to the world? By the way, I think the image shows the primacy of the local congregation. Not of Presbytery, not of the General Assembly. Why do I say that? Where is the light? Where is the oil? It's going, getting poured into each one of these lamps. So you have the full Holy Spirit in each local congregation. You got light coming from each local congregation. You got Christ trimming each local congregation. So it's a beautiful balance in this figure here. So biblical church government is Presbyterian in its organization and it is identical to the Presbyterian polity of the synagogue system established in Exodus 18. That's all I'm going to say on yielding to the representatives of Jesus Of course, as they stay close to His hand and as they faithfully message His mouth, His Word. My final admonition to you is to have the spiritual eyes and ears to meet with Jesus every Lord's Day. It's His desire to meet with you. So Lord's Day by Lord's Day, come with expectation and submit your hearts to His work. Amen. Father, we thank you for the marvelous image that we have in this passage here. And we know there's so much more that is in it, but I pray that our hearts would be encouraged, that you love the church, you care for the church, you are week by week meeting with your church and ministering in its midst. And I pray that we would be receptacles to your Holy Spirit and to your ministry. May we be lights shining in the world. to your glory, and we pray it in Christ's name, amen.