Revelation 1 vs 9-20

Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 9

·    John doesn’t identify himself as pastor, apostle, disciple, bishop, prophet or deacon…, he says both your brother and companion together in the tribulation, and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. This tribulation is not the Great Tribulation but rather a description of the present realm, the present time. John was given the Revelation of Jesus Christ during the church age, the age we are still in…, and this age is indeed a time of tribulation. There will be trouble in your life as you serve heaven while abiding on earth – you’re an abdicator, you’re a traitor to this world!

·    AND, also the time of the Kingdom! The Kingdom of God was deployed full time to earth in John 20:21-22… “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” The promise and the giving of the Holy Spirit is God deploying full time to earth. So, John was in the time of tribulation, John was in the time of the Kingdom, just as you and I are, and he was in the time of the patience of God. Just as we are until He calls it all done…

·    John says that he was on the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He was exiled there because of his trust and reliance upon the words he heard directly from Jesus. And because of his exile, due to his faithfulness to Jesus, he receives the testimony, the witnessing, of Jesus Christ directly. His faithfulness got him there… Didn’t seem great at the onset for sure…

·    Virtue in faith is opposite of indulgence in sin. Sin gratifies immediately and then takes payment after payment after payment over time with hellish interest rates. Walking by faith is hard immediately and then makes payment after payment after payment over time with heavenly interest rates…

Revelation Chapter 1 Verses 10-11

·    Thank God for this perspective! To show me that this is possible! John was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day and yet I know that John’s whole world has been torn apart. He began well, finding success in the fishing industry, some solid partners in Peter, James and Andrew, and then left it all to follow Jesus who proved to him that He indeed was and is the prophesized Messiah. He followed Him for a little over three years. Extraordinary years, in which how he perceives this world radically changed. He saw the dead raised to life, the blind see, the wisest of the wise confounded by Jesus’ simple and brief perfect statements. He saw thousands fed with only a lunchbox of food, twice! He lived side by side with God Himself.

·    Then Jesus was taken and brutalized. Crucified as he (John) alone stood and watched, comforting Jesus’ mother. He watched his Lord give up His Spirit and breathe His last. It was three days later that he saw the Lord again…unable to contain himself, he shoves Peter aside and rushes into the grave, entirely taboo for his culture at the time. He spent a short time with the risen Jesus after that and then had lived sixty years without Him but entirely for Him. And now, for that faithful witness, he is left old, exiled, alone and forgotten…and yet we read in verse 10, “I was in the Spirit.”

·    Why is that so significant? Because I’ve never had it this badly and so often, I find myself…, NOT in the spirit!! John shows me what strength of faith, what joy in total commitment looks like! He could have been grumbling, he could have been fishing, he could have been building a boat…looking for washed up FedEx boxes…but how is it that we find him? In the Spirit. 

·    What a testimony. Through the power of the Spirit of God enabled by his total commitment, he finds the strength of character not be trivial, self-focused and shallow… Found in John is something this world cannot offer…a strength to live above the circumstance and emotions. He is, in this scene, overcoming the world…

·    John was in the Spirit he hears a loud voice…as a trumpet. The trumpet is such a fantastic and important instrument in scripture and we see this instrument throughout the Bible beginning in Exodus 19 where we see God appear to all of the people at Mt. Sinai in a thick cloud with thunder and lightning and the sounding of the trumpet. Very interesting however as you read there in Exodus 19, it’s not told to us who sounds the trumpet. And even though it is not told, one thing we can conclude from the text…it’s not Moses…it’s not Aaron…in fact it’s none of the people of Israel…then who is it?

·    John says here, “I heard behind me a loud voice… like a loud sounding of a trumpet…” and we’ll see that as he turns…he sees…Jesus! 

·    Jesus, there with God the Father, with the heavy cloud of God’s presence and glory…signals the people on Mount Sinai…, “Come! Come near to the Father!!!” The people would be commanded to ever observe that day as the Feast of Trumpets…a prophetic feast that has not yet been fulfilled…a fall feast that many Bible scholars believe will be fulfilled in the rapture of the church. 

·    Why? Because as we continue to survey the use of the trumpet in the Old Testament…through Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and so on…what do we see? The trumpet signaling the people of God to gather! 

·    And so, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says that “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God and we who are alive shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Comfort one another with these words.”

·    Just like John, the church will one day be in the Spirit, communing with the Father as the body of Christ, and we will hear the trumpet blow…the call of Jesus Himself, “Come up here!” just like we see in Revelation 4:1 and we will forever be gathered in the presence of the Father!

·    But then notice, once the church is gone…once the people of God have been taken out of the way, the trumpet now is not a call of victory…a call of communion and gathering to the Father…but of judgment. After Revelation 4 we no longer are comforted by the trumpet because beginning in Revelation 8:1…, (proof that men are raptured 30 minutes before women, ha!) there is silence in heaven for about half an hour and a group of seven angels were given what…seven trumpets…for what purpose…to strike the vegetation of the world, to strike the seas, to strike the waters, to strike the heavens, to summon the locusts, to summon the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates, and finally, to put an end to the kingdoms of the world. 

·    The picture is clear. The story is complete. The trumpet appears first to introduce a holy covenant between God and man at the foot of Mt. Sinai…its then used throughout the history of the people of God to remind them of that covenant and communion they have with the Father. Then ultimately, it’s used to forever gather God’s children unto Himself…taking them out of the way and the chapter closes. The new chapter, the Dispensation of Judgement, opens with finality and justice. The trumpet, such a fantastic and important instrument in scripture.

Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 12

·    There is a pattern of events in what we just read. John is in the Spirit (1), and hears the voice of the Lord (2)…, what does He do…He turns to face Him (3)…John says, “Then I turned to see.” I want you to know today, in order to see many times, most of the time…you have to turn. (With every good exhortation, there is always a bit of exorcism!) God is speaking to you.  His word is providing clear and precise instruction. The Holy Spirit is testifying of the fact that you need to turn…your brothers and sisters in the Lord maybe even have told you clearly that you’re headed in the wrong direction…and if you ever want to see…the choice is yours just like it is John’s here…turn and face the truth! John turns and what comes next is awesome. 

Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 13 - 16

·    Here we have the only Biblical physical description of Jesus. Why not before? I would submit to you because the work He came to do before this moment was just that, done. And now this form is the form of Jesus Christ forever. His true form. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.”

·    Notice, entirely significant for the times we are in today, where is the Lord? He is in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. We will find out in verse 20 of this chapter that the lampstands are the churches, or better said, the seven golden lampstands are the church. Be very clear, there can be no debate, if you are a Christian, you need to be in church. That’s where Jesus places Himself.

·    Yes, I know that God is omnipresent, and He is present in your homes too, and you can say what you need to say to yourself to make it ok. But God would have you to gather with the Saints, to serve corporately, to make a statement to the world that God is worthy to be served and He is worthy to be praised!

·    Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works (how?), not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” We are in the “So much the more,” most definitely right now. Christians are called to church. There can be no debate. 

·    Now, John no doubt remembers Jesus beaten almost to death. He was there the whole time. John no doubt remembers Jesus nailed to the cross and hanging there for hours bleeding and gasping for each breath with the crown of thorns too small for His head pressed into Him. John was there…the only disciple at the cross! He no doubt has burned into his mind the image of Jesus’ destruction as He died there on the cross…but now he turns and what He sees is the Lord in all of His eternal magnificence! Something like the Mount of Transfiguration but even more complete. 

·    Jesus is clothed with a garment down to the feet!! He remembers Jesus laying his garment down to wash the feet of the disciples…he remembers his garments being divided among the Romans there at the cross…but now he sees something significant…the garment of the Lord will never again be laid down…the robe of the Lord will never again be divided… He reigns! The work of salvation, the hope of mankind, complete!

·    And robes down to the feet were only worn by two types of folks…kings and priests! Jesus put aside His kingship to become man-kinds’ high priest and now here He is…forever both! Our King and our High Priest! The head of the churches! The priest or Way or Single Mediator to the Father and the King, the Single Authority! 

·    And He was girded about the chest with a golden band…gold always speaking of deity. His head and hair, gleaming and His eyes like a flame of fire! His feet like fine brass! Brass is iron mixed with copper which produces strength that endures. Brass is only used materially in the Bible in one other place and that is to construct the brazen alter. This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ! He is our righteousness that forever endures. Endured to the end and now endures forever proclaiming our righteousness to the Father through us being in Him!

·    And His voice…like the sound of many waters! Power and tranquility in perfect harmony! And in His right hand, seven stars which we know to be the seven angels of the seven churches or maybe better translated, the seven messengers or pastors if you will…why would I say that? Because that word in the Greek for angels is a word that is derived from the root word aggello meaning “One who is sent.”

·    And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword…well what is that? We know from Hebrews 4:12 that is the Word of God! “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” And, notice, it comes right out of the mouth of the Lord…not man…

·    And His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength…, it was like looking at the noon-day sun. 

Revelation Chapter 1 Verses 17 – 18

·    Death could not hold Him. Jesus says here that He has the keys to death and to hell. Where did Jesus go when He died upon the cross? He went to Paradise. A compartment of hell that today lies empty. He went to proclaim to those that had died before the finished work of the cross that salvation has come and He marched the captive souls out of Hades to eternal freedom as we read in Ephesians 4:8-9, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. Now this, He ascended,” what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.”

·    Jesus has the keys to all that we fear. We fear death. We fear destruction, we fear the power of hell, and yet Jesus has the keys to all of those things and we have nothing to fear, truly…but fear itself. What would you do, who would you be (I pray for myself that the answer would be, “not much different”), what would be your witness and testimony of the power of God if you and I were free from fear? It’s been said, “If you want to learn how to walk on water, one must first master the fear of climbing out of the boat.” But, God gives more grace…

·    I know that fear is crippling and everyone today who lives in fear would in a moment, if they were able, would disown, disavow and abandon their fear if they could. And so, I do not condemn, and neither does the Lord…, here’s the cure. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Focus on self sends you into cycles of worldly repetitions…, but if you set your eyes on Jesus and study Him and press into Him, His majesty and power set you free to the point that you may say, Psalm 118:6, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 19

·    Write the things which you have seen…Chapter 1, the risen and glorified Lord! It’s made clear for us in verse 11…The things which presently are…Chapters 2 and 3…the seven churches or the church age. And write the things which will take place after this or meta touta in the Greek. Chapters 4 – 22 as chapter 4 opens up with “meta touta.” The Great Tribulation period, the second coming of Jesus, the Millennial Reign, the final judgments and then finally the new heaven and the new earth. 

Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 20

·    And so next week we’ll get into the letters to the churches.