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[0:00] Now you can open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1. We got as far as verse 8, I think, with the intro. So there's 12 verses left, which you think wouldn't take too long.

[0:16] Boy, there's a lot there. I was planning to finish the chapter. We may. I don't know. We'll let the Lord set the pace. And we may not. But, you know, Sue and I were kind of joking this week that, man, Calvary Chapel of Charlotte, we go from Genesis to Revelation.

[0:35] Literally, Genesis and Revelation. But we're probably not going to come back around to it. We're either going to be raptured or, well, there's just a lot of the rest of the Bible to go through.

[0:47] And I think we have a unique opportunity just to kind of go through it slowly, especially through chapter 3. I mean, when we get to seven churches, chapter 2 and 3, we'll be doing at least one study per church.

[1:02] But there's so much even tonight that I was thinking about how we approach the Scripture. And, you know, Psalm 40, verse 7 says, And if you look at the Scripture surrounding that, it's a prophecy speaking of Jesus.

[1:21] He says, you know, The whole thing is about Jesus.

[1:31] And we've been seeing that as we've been studying the Old Testament on Sunday morning, seeing the pictures of Jesus there. And there's so much to see. And, you know, when we did that study a few weeks ago on how to study your Bible that Wednesday night, I think as I've been going just to my own studies and the more I think about it, I think 75% at least of studying the Bible is observation.

[1:54] Observation, interpretation, application. The more you observe the Scriptures, the more you dig into what is actually being said there, what's happening, what's the context, what's this person doing, how are they interacting, what are the features here, the more observation that you see in Scripture, the interpretation, application almost just like falls off the tree.

[2:14] It's like, oh, wow. Which makes sense, right? The Bible doesn't need me to come to it to figure out what it's saying. Well, it's a good thing we're here, right? It's not been waiting for us. It's for us to observe what is there.

[2:24] It doesn't need me to bring an interpretation to it and some philosophy. Well, I'm going to apply my own whatever. Who am I among the billions of people alive now and however many billions and billions that have lived, the Bible wasn't just waiting for me in that sense of waiting for me to interpret it.

[2:41] And there's a lot in this section of jest that we can observe, and I think it's really instructive. So I don't want, you know, I want you to be able to know that, man, you know, Calvary Chapel Charlotte, should you go on someday somewhere else and be somewhere else to know that you are equipped in the Word and with the Word, but I also want you to be equipped to use the Word.

[3:00] Like, I want to bring, like, man, God's truth and be like, yeah, that was a good message, but I also want you to see how I got there. Like, how did we get there? How did we get there? What did that mean from point A to point B? And I think Revelation is a really neat opportunity to do that.

[3:15] So we may not get through this whole chapter, the rest of this chapter tonight, and you think, man, that's not very many verses. It's not. And afterwards, if you're like, Jared, that was just too slow and too drawn out, just let me know. I'm not taking a vote, but it's good to, you know, make you think I care.

[3:33] No, I do care very much. All right, so John 15, 15, Jesus says, And again, the difference there is relationship in communication.

[3:51] As a servant doesn't know the reasons, well, the friend does. And so Jesus is not withholding anything. Revelation is not to withhold, it's to reveal.

[4:02] Remember, apocalypse, to lay bare. So if we're going to title this study, it would be Jesus in the midst. So we're going to see Jesus, a beautiful picture. It's one of my favorite sections of Scripture, this picture of Jesus. Not the picture we think.

[4:12] I was going to put a picture up of what people say Jesus looks like, but I just can't stand it, and so I'm not going to do it. Jesus in the midst. So we have come as far as verse 9.

[4:25] We had verses 1 through 3, kind of an introduction, an opening to the book. And then we had John in verse 4. He's kind of writing his introduction to the letter.

[4:36] And then we see Jesus in verse 8. Verse 9 picks up with John not so much giving an introduction, as he begins to give his account. So this is what happened. If he was on the witness stand, this is when he begins his witness, we could say.

[4:48] Okay. And verse 9 says, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.

[4:59] So John identifies himself. He lets us know who he is and who he is in relation to us. So this is John the Apostle, if you don't know. This is John who wrote the book of John, the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and then Revelation as well.

[5:13] This is John who at the cross, when Jesus said, looking at Mary, he said, woman, behold your son. And then to John he said, behold your mother. And so John took in Mary and cared for her the rest of his life, or her life.

[5:26] This is that John, the John that leaned on Jesus' bosom at the Last Supper. The John that Peter said, hey, hey, hey, ask him who he means. Who's going to betray him? And that's that John, the John who outran Peter to the tomb.

[5:38] The John who wanted to call down fire from heaven on that city that rejected Jesus. But then the John that enacts, we never see him talk again.

[5:49] He's with Peter, and Peter's always the one who speaks. Interesting just how God, through maturity and sanctification, just changes people from what you might expect. So it says here that he is a brother.

[6:00] What does it mean to be a brother? What is it to have a brother? What is the qualifications of a brother? Feel free to talk. We're going to have a little interaction. What? Same parents. Yes.

[6:11] One who is born from the same source. Right? Why are we brethren? Because we've been born from the same source. And so John's saying, I'm your brother. He says, I'm a companion. Companion means participant or partaker.

[6:23] So John, by birth and participation, has entered into the family of God, and so have we. He says, hey, I'm your brother, and I'm your companion. But then he says specifically, in a very specific way, and in the king, I'm sorry, companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom, and patience of Jesus Christ.

[6:42] So very specific reasons. Three reasons. Tribulation, kingdom, and patience. John, I think, is saying tribulation. He's saying, I identify. I'm identifying with you.

[6:53] You have been in this tribulation, and so am I. We are brethren, and we are companions and partakers in the same thing. I'm identifying with you. I'm one of you. I'm one of those who have been persecuted. Kingdom.

[7:05] There he's saying, hey, we have the same position. Positionally, we are in the kingdom together. We're in the same position. And then lastly, patience. He's saying the patience of Jesus Christ. We have the same nature in this as well.

[7:18] John's not putting himself on a pedestal. He's not saying, I, John, who wrote the Gospel of John, who takes care of Mary, who was there at Jesus' last supper. He's not doing any of that. He says, hey, I'm no different than you.

[7:29] We've been born from the same source. We're going through the same things. This is who I am. John is our brother and companion only because Jesus was first our brother and companion.

[7:41] In the same way John is saying, hey, I've identified with you. I have the same position as you and the same nature as you. So has Jesus. In Romans 8.29, we read, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn, Jesus might be the firstborn, among many brethren.

[8:03] So we are brothers to John because we're brothers to Jesus. We've all been born out of the same source, right? It's the same thing. He says, I was in the isle that is called Patmos.

[8:17] The isle of Patmos. If you remember all of our maps we threw up when we were in Acts, traveling with Paul all over the place. Well, there you can see Patmos is that little dot in the Aegean Sea.

[8:27] And you also see the seven churches that are going to be covered. Pergamos, Thartira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Ephesus, and Smyrna. All there in Asia Minor and Asia. And so John was put on this island of Patmos.

[8:40] Like, well, that can't be too bad. The climate's got to be nice. And yeah, it was like Alcatraz in that area for these prisoners. It was pretty barren. There's nothing there. There's no trees.

[8:50] There's wind swept. There wasn't a lot there. He was imprisoned during the reign of Domitian, which was from 81 to 96 AD. So like 16 year period.

[9:02] And Domitian is the brother of Titus who destroyed Jerusalem. And Titus Vespasian came in and destroyed Jerusalem. There are two legends about John that have no proof.

[9:13] But we hear them taught as if they're true. Nobody knows. Hippolytus was a church father a few hundred years after John. And he says John was plunged in oil and he didn't die.

[9:24] So then they exiled him. And it's a nice story, but we don't know if it's true or not. And then another church father says that John was forced to work in the mines that were located on Patmos. But nobody knows that for sure.

[9:35] That's not really the point. The point is John was exiled for his faith. He's pretty much a political prisoner at this point. Just like, hey, let's get you out of here. And even though Domitian could exile John physically, well, they couldn't exile him spiritually.

[9:51] They couldn't separate him from the Lord. And so John says, I was in the Isle of Patmos for two reasons. The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

[10:04] Two things. The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Aren't those the same thing? The word of God and the testimony? Well, what is the word of God? Now, a word is something that's spoken, right? It's the expression.

[10:15] John 1.1, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Well, in the beginning was the word. It's John 14. 1.14. The word became flesh. So the word of God is the spoken expression of God. The testimony of Jesus would be the lived or experienced expression, right?

[10:29] We have the word of God in our lives. The spoken expression of God to us. We also have the testimony of Jesus. As we live that out, it's the lived out or the experienced expression of the testimony.

[10:41] The testimony of God, of the word of God in our lives. So John says, these are the reason I was there. I was there because I have the word of God, and then I lived it out, that testimony. And man, Rome didn't like that because Rome couldn't silence that.

[10:54] And I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as a trumpet. So the Lord's day, we're not quite sure what that means. Well, it was Sunday.

[11:04] Well, the problem with that is they didn't call Sunday the Lord's day at this point in history. It was later that they did that, that they called it the Lord's day. This could very well mean that John was in the spirit on the day of the Lord.

[11:15] We're going to see this phrase, in the spirit, a number of different times, four different times. On the day of the Lord, he says, I was in the spirit, Revelation 1.10.

[11:26] He was in the spirit taken to the throne of heaven, Revelation 4.2. In the spirit carried away into the wilderness, Revelation 17.3. And in the spirit carried to a mountain.

[11:38] What it doesn't mean is John was in some trance, you know, or like asleep. John is, in a sense, physically, but spiritually, at the day of the Lord.

[11:49] As he sees these things take place, he's actually seeing what's going to happen. This isn't like just a vision, like, well, I think. He's trying to describe what he sees. And as we go through Revelation, understand the perspective we're looking at it from.

[12:02] We're looking at seven years of God's judgment being poured out of the world from heaven's perspective. We only get a few glimpses from earth's perspective, right? When Jesus was here, walking on this earth physically, we saw everything from man's perspective, from this side, looking towards heaven, right?

[12:22] We don't have a ton of glimpses of heaven's perspective. We do a few times when Jesus is baptized, and the heavens open, and the dove descends, the Holy Spirit, and we hear, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm already well pleased.

[12:34] We have a few glimpses when Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration. But it's mainly from earth's perspective. Revelation is very much from heaven's perspective. So for John, he's in the Spirit, but it's not like he's in a trance or anything like that.

[12:49] He's in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and he begins to describe what happened. And he says, I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. What are the three things there that happened to John in that verse with this voice?

[13:05] He hears this voice, and what are the characteristics of it? Well, the first, it's behind him, isn't it? Where is it? He says, I heard a voice behind me. So the voice is standing with John, essentially.

[13:19] It's close enough he hears it. It's with him. It's a great voice that is speaking to John. It's not just speaking. It's speaking to John. John is like, okay. And the third thing, as a trumpet.

[13:30] Well, what does a trumpet signify? It's clear. It's understandable. So John hears a voice that's with him, speaking to him, and is clear as understandable and understandable.

[13:40] In Hebrews chapter 1, we read in verse 1, that in times past, and in diverse manners, God spake unto the fathers by the prophets.

[13:55] And he has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. How does he speak?

[14:06] Well, he speaks to us. He speaks clear. He speaks understandable. And his word is with us. And this voice that was behind him, he heard saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

[14:24] Remember we saw that last time in verse 8? I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And he's instructing John now. What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.

[14:38] Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. We will look at those when we get into chapter 2, specifically. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write in a book.

[14:52] You know, we're teaching, like we said, Genesis to Revelation. Well, we're in Exodus. What phrase right there just kind of jumps off the page? Saying what? I am. In Exodus.

[15:02] What am I going to tell them, God? What am I going to tell the people when they ask your name? I am that I am. And here in Revelation, this voice saying, I am Alpha and Omega.

[15:15] All right. Who is this Revelation for? What does the text say? Who's it for? The churches.

[15:26] What are the churches comprised of? People. Believers. Believers. God's revelation is for God's people. He didn't say, John, write this and send it to the world.

[15:38] Write this and send it out to everybody. God's revelation is for God's people. It's for the church. You think, wow, send it.

[15:50] Well, maybe he should have said, John, go. Go and tell this. This is important. Go and tell this. Send it. What if it gets lost in the mail? Write it down and send it. We do not have to worry about God's word getting lost in the mail any more than we have to worry about God's word getting lost in translation.

[16:08] God is able to preserve his word. We don't have to think, well, how do you know? This is, listen, if God can keep a fallen man, grant him salvation and keep him to the end, then he can use fallen man to keep his word and preserve his word.

[16:23] God is able to. He's not worried about the means and the methods. He's worried about John being obedient. God will take care of that if we step in obedience. How many churches are here?

[16:35] Notice the text does not say, and send it unto the church, which is in Asia, Ephesus, and Smyrna. It's unto the seven churches, plural. We think, well, wait a minute. There's one church universal.

[16:47] Colossians 1.18 said, and he is the head of the body, the church. One church, universal. Acts 20.28 says, Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, as Paul on the shore of Miletus, talking to the elders from Ephesus.

[17:02] Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which is purchased with his own blood, to feed the church. But wait a minute.

[17:12] There's multiple elders. There's almost like a bunch of pastors coming from Ephesus. Was it one church in Ephesus? Was it multiple? This kind of makes, like, I can't quite tell. Now, 1 Peter 5.2 says to feed, or literally shepherd the flock of God, which is among you.

[17:29] Among you. Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you. Jesus himself here is saying there are multiple local churches, church pieces, making up one universal church.

[17:42] And then Peter says, shepherd the flock of God among you. What church are you among? We're not responsible to shepherd the church that others are among. Only for where God has placed us.

[17:54] Now, that brings up another thing that's very unique about the church. And it's not, I don't want to say it's a negative thing, but it's an interesting thing. So we are united, as we just saw with John, in our, by birth, and by what we participate in with Christ.

[18:09] And when you meet somebody, you meet someone new who walks in the door. I might, I might get their name right the first time. I might. I might. Hi, Karen. Got you. I might get your name right.

[18:20] I might not. But we can start talking. And all of a sudden, the connection happens. And the Holy Spirit and the fellowship. And you're just like, oh, we are so close. Oh, I love that person. Oh, they're amazing. You know. And you can feel like you've known him forever.

[18:31] Because in a sense, you have. Your relationship is now outside time and eternity. I mean, space, time, and matter. Your relationship's eternal. It's not about how long you've known them. It's not about how much you have in common.

[18:42] You have something eternal. That whether you see them again or not, when we went to the pastor's conference this last year in September, I saw somebody I haven't seen in 20, 20 years.

[18:52] Somebody I really haven't seen in 15. And it was like, it was like we just saw each other yesterday. It was great. It was awesome. Have I talked to them much since then? I haven't. And so what happens is someone's with us at fellowships for a while.

[19:04] They leave or we leave. And then you don't really see them very much. And you think, well, they're not a good friend. Maybe I'm not a good friend. Right? That's not at all. How many of us would know each other outside of here?

[19:16] It's because of this that we're together. Even when we're together for a long, long, long time, how many of us fellowship outside of here? And we do some. Right? It doesn't diminish what we have here.

[19:27] But I think instead of looking at it almost like a negative thing, like, oh, I don't see that person anymore. That's okay. That's the nature of how it works. This isn't heaven yet. We're not all together in one place fellowshipping yet.

[19:39] That's heaven. But almost we need to look at it. What is God's body provided? Man, what a blessing. Because that person was in my life for a time. Because I knew that person. Now, I have friendships that have carried on from other churches and places in life that have been more than just what this has facilitated.

[19:56] But that does not knock what the local gathering of the body facilitates. It's an important part of our growth. But it's okay when we're among a different flock than other people, and maybe we don't see them as much anymore.

[20:13] That's okay. But when we get back together with them, isn't it just like, oh, it's so rich. It's like we never left off. That's because of that eternal part of the relationship. And so Jesus says, send it unto the seven churches.

[20:27] And so it is okay to have churches. What is it that he tells them to do with this? He tells them three things. What are the three things he tells them to do?

[20:39] He says, what you have seen, you are to write and to send. And so here's we get into some just observation.

[20:52] What is it to see something? What is it to see something? Witness.

[21:03] Hey, I actually had that word on here. To write something. If you're going to write something down, you are recording it. You are preserving it. And then to send something.

[21:14] Well, what does that mean? It's to pass it on. It's to share it. So just observing the text. We're not interpreting it. We're not applying it. We're just saying, what is happening here? To see, to write, and to send.

[21:25] John, I want you to see this. You need to observe this. You need to witness this. You need to pay attention, John. If John's not witnessing it, if he's not paying attention, if he doesn't observe it, he can't do the other two. To write it.

[21:37] Record this, John. Preserve it. Remember it. This is something not to be forgotten. This is something important, John. This is something I don't want you to have to rely on your memory. And you're an old man, John.

[21:49] And it's possible you're boiled in oil and working in the mines. So you need to write this down, bro. Send it. Pass it on. Share it. Don't keep it to yourself. It's something that's meant to be given away.

[22:00] Do I need to make application and interpretation there? Man, it just kind of falls right off, doesn't it? It's the same for us. God says, what is it you've seen in your life of my goodness? What is it you're seeing in the word?

[22:11] Are you taking up time to observe the word? To witness it and how it witnesses in your own life? Are you paying attention to what God is speaking to you? Are you willing to record it, preserve it, remember it?

[22:22] Is it just something like, well, I did my duty and off I go? Are we willing to share it, to send it, to pass it on? That was a hard one for me for a long time. God would bring a scripture to my mind.

[22:33] As I'm talking to someone, I'm not going to say anything. They're going to think I'm just like some know-it-all, some holy roller. And the Lord is like, if I put something on your heart, you need to speak it. It's not the devil giving you a scripture when it comes to mind when you're talking to someone.

[22:45] So it's like, okay, I'll start speaking that. And so that's what this voice is saying. It's saying, to send to these churches, John, see, write, and send.

[22:56] And so now John turns. He hears the voice. And I turn to see the voice that spake with me. You know, one of these things is not like the other.

[23:07] One of these things is not the same. What is it that's off about this? Is there something off about this phraseology? If you heard someone yelling, you know, and you went to tell somebody, like, hey, what was that?

[23:21] What would you say? I turned and someone was yelling at me. I wanted to see who was speaking to me. But that's not what this says. It says here, and I turn to see the voice that spake with me.

[23:35] How do you see a voice? Is there anywhere else in scripture that talks about this? A voice. A voice. Way back in the beginning, right? Adam and Eve had just done a rotten thing by eating their most rotten fruit in history.

[23:51] And the eyes of them were both opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together. Very itchy and foolish. That's what the flesh does when we try to cover our own sin. And they made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden.

[24:06] We would never say that. If I heard you walking in the garden, oh, I heard Lily walking in the garden. And it's, oh, I heard a voice walking in the garden. In the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.

[24:18] That voice was what? The presence of the Lord. And here is what I was quoting earlier. John 1.1. So this is Jesus.

[24:42] It's everywhere here, right? That this is Jesus. We know that. So John did three things with this voice. What were those three things? He says, I turned to, he heard the voice, then he turned to see the voice, and then he saw the voice.

[25:00] In hearing the voice, what did he hear? He heard the word. In turning to the voice, what did he do? He responded to the word being spoken to him. Seeing the voice, who is he going to see?

[25:12] Well, we're going to find out in a few verses later, he sees Jesus. When we hear the word, when we respond to the word, who do we then see? We see Jesus when we do that.

[25:23] You know, we don't get to see Jesus physically, do we? I mean, anybody here physically seen Jesus? That's good. Me neither. We don't get to. You think, man, I wish I could have seen Jesus.

[25:35] I mean, John's going to see Jesus like we can't even imagine. I think, well, even if I could have seen him maybe back when he was walking the earth, what did he look like? Was he short? You know, was he hairy?

[25:46] What was he like? And Thomas, if you remember after the resurrection, he refused to believe that Jesus had risen again until he could see Jesus. And Jesus then comes and says to Thomas, after Thomas says, my Lord and my God, he says, Thomas, because you've seen me, you have believed.

[26:06] Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Do you know you have a special blessing as those that have not seen and believed? Something that not even the disciples had, but it's a blessing for those who have not seen.

[26:18] Hebrews 11.1 says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen. Faith, my trust in God, bears witness to what I can't see.

[26:30] And then 2 Corinthians 5.7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We will eventually get to it in Exodus 20, that you are not to make any graven image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above, whether it's on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

[26:46] Why not? Why can't faith be visual? Why can't we see? What is the reason? When our faith is dependent upon that which can be seen, it's no longer dependent upon the eternal, but the temporal.

[27:01] Faith is spiritual. Sight is natural. 2 Corinthians 4.18 says, While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

[27:19] Sight hinders faith. When we have to have sight, when we have to see it to believe it from God or receive it from God, it hinders our faith because faith is spiritual. Sight is natural.

[27:30] We're going to get a description of Jesus, but we're not going to get a picture. This voice says, write. It didn't say to John, draw. Paint. You know, get your phone out.

[27:42] You know, you've heard it said, a picture is worth a thousand words. From God's perspective, these words are worth any picture. What did he see? What verse did we get down to?

[27:55] Verse 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. So he saw the voice, what it was. He heard the voice, turned to the voice, saw the voice. And being turned, what did he see?

[28:07] Did he see this voice? No, the first thing he sees is seven golden candlesticks. Now, that's not like what we think of a candlestick, you know, like that you'd hold going through a spooky house or something.

[28:18] In the temple and in the tabernacle, there was one candlestick with seven lamps, right? The menorah. We know what that looks like.

[28:29] That's the old covenant. It's Jewish. Well, here now we have, under the new covenant, Gentile. What do we have? We have seven separate candlesticks. And even then, it's more of a pole with a lamp on the top.

[28:43] And the lamp was just a bowl or a container with a wick with oil in it that was lit. So there was a continued source of light, or I mean fuel for this light. So you have seven separate candlesticks, each one with their own light, each one burning.

[29:00] In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus telling his disciples says, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel.

[29:13] But where do they put it? A candlestick. Literally means a lampstand. So it's not so much he's seeing seven lampstands. He's seeing seven lamps on stands, is what you could say. And they're lit. And he gives light unto all that are in the house.

[29:26] Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. That's these lamps. Now, what is this? You know, we've said before, Scripture interprets Scripture.

[29:39] So well. If you remember when we went through Mark at one time and we looked at the parable of the sower, we have the four different conditions of the soil where the seed was sown. On the path, among the rocks, in the thorns, and then on the good soil.

[29:52] What does that mean? What's what the disciples said to Jesus? What's this parable mean? And Jesus said, well, I'll tell you. And then he tells us. So we can't sit there and go, you know, I think the seed that fell on the path is a person that's just been hurt really bad in their past.

[30:05] And they're closed up. We can't do that because the Scripture tells us. Jesus says, no, that's the one whose heart is hard. And then the enemy comes and takes it away because they don't receive the word.

[30:16] Oh, okay. Well, we have that here in Revelation. We can't just make up. I wonder what these lampstands are. I wonder what the seven stars are. We're going to see these seven stars eventually in his right hand. If you look over in verse 20 at the end of the chapter, Jesus is going to say, the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, we'll get to them eventually, and the seven golden candlesticks or lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, messengers to the seven churches, and the seven lampstands, which you saw are what?

[30:43] The seven churches. It's the seven churches. So, as John turns to see these seven lampstands, we're finding out he's seeing a representation of the church. What did John see first?

[30:57] Did he see the voice, the source of the voice, or did he see the lampstands first? Lampstands, right? Before he could see the one in the midst of the church, he first saw the church.

[31:11] Isn't that so much like what Jesus has called us to do in being the light of the world? That Jesus has made us ambassadors for Christ? He said, I've given you this treasure in earth and vessels. I've called you to be the light of the world.

[31:23] Now go out that they can see me. Are you sure, Lord? Are you sure you want to do it that way? How about we have people see you first, and then the church? No, he's called the church to go into the world.

[31:33] Before John sees the one in the midst of the lampstands, he sees first the lampstands. All right, what are some observations about lampstands? They're taller than a grasshopper.

[31:49] What are some observations about these lampstands specifically? What are they made of? The gold. What does gold represent many times in Scripture? That our faith being more precious than gold being tried in the fire.

[32:03] When you try gold in the fire, what does it do to it? Pure. Pure. The lampstands are how many? Seven. Seven. And what seven in Scripture usually represent?

[32:15] Wholeness. Completeness. This is the complete church. None missing. This is a whole church. They're individual. They're not by themselves. I mean, they're not together. They're all individual.

[32:27] I think in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit descended, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, that it says that there was essentially a pillar of fire, and then it separated into individual pillars, tongues of fire, sat on each of them, representing, as we saw in the burning bush, God's presence represented by fire, each with their own individual presence, not relying on someone else.

[32:49] In other words, here we have seven golden candlesticks, each one lit, going into the world. No longer is it one menorah with seven lamps. No longer do we have to go to Israel, to Jerusalem, to the temple, to find God in his presence.

[33:03] His presence is now in the whole world, in his church. Lampstands, they're individual. They're complete, because they're seven. They're pure, because they're golden. Each one is lit.

[33:14] It's not six lit and one out. And each, we don't know its source. It's an unseen source of fuel. So each of these churches, the individual, it's a complete church.

[33:25] They're pure, each one lit, and each with an unseen source of fuel. Even Laodicea, this is the seven churches. Yes, even Laodicea. God has a remnant and a presence there.

[33:36] And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. Again, I'm reading from King James.

[33:46] Yours may not say paps. Yes. The jest means he's clothed with a garment down to the foot, and he had like a sash, a golden sash. Does it tell us in this passage the color of his garment?

[34:01] No, it doesn't. It's very interesting. Notice what it's looking at first. We're going to eventually look at Jesus' head and Jesus' feet. But where does it focus first? The body. The body is the first thing we're seeing here, before we see the head and the feet.

[34:15] In the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man. He's in the midst. That means among, within. Can you think of another scripture that talks about Jesus being in the midst?

[34:29] Mm-hmm. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. He's in the midst. What is he doing there?

[34:40] Well, first we see what is he clothed with? Well, he's clothed with a long garment. Specifically, what is it telling us? To the foot. Why is it telling us that? Remember what we saw with Joseph and the coat of many colors?

[34:51] It didn't mean so much coat of many colors. It meant a coat to the ankles. Because that was a position of authority. Of power. It meant I didn't do manual labor. I told other people to do labor.

[35:03] That I was someone of authority. And see here we say, Jesus. He's clothed with authority. It indicates position. He's got that sash. The golden sash. And purpose. He's not just wandering aimlessly among these golden lampstands.

[35:16] There's a purpose there. What is his purpose? Well, in the Old Testament, what was the purpose of the... What was one of the purposes of the priests in the tabernacle? With the menorah.

[35:27] What was one of their jobs? To keep it lit. 24-7. Keep that thing lit. They would keep it lit. Keep it with oil. They would tend to it. Hebrews 4.14 tells us that Jesus is our high priest.

[35:42] That we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the son of God. Therefore, let us hold fast our profession. Because we know our high priest is so capable.

[35:53] Jesus, our high priest. What is he doing? He's walking among the church. He's in the midst of the church. Walking among these lampstands. He's its source of light. He's the light of the world. He's the one supplying the source.

[36:04] That's his job within the church. Here he is moving about, making sure, tending to this one. Tending to that one. I think we'll do a little more and then we'll stop.

[36:20] His head and his hairs were white like wool. So there we shift from the body. Now we're looking at the head. His head and his hair were white like wool. As white as snow.

[36:33] And his eyes were as a flame of fire. So, some observation. We have his hair. What's it being likened to? Wool and snow.

[36:44] Didn't mean you just had a cool haircut. What are the two characteristics that are the same between those two? They're white.

[36:55] White like wool. White as wool. And white as snow. Isaiah 1.18 says, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

[37:07] Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And here is Jesus crowned. Essentially his head crowned with the reality of that truth.

[37:20] Crowned with wisdom. White hair in scripture means wisdom. Purity and holiness. This picture John sees as he looks at Jesus. There's another phrase in here we're going to see all throughout Revelation.

[37:34] His head and his hairs were white like wool. As white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. It doesn't say, And Jesus had wool and snow for hair, and his eyes were fire.

[37:46] It says as and like. If you remember in Revelation 1 verse 1, So the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified.

[37:59] It's a lot of signs in Revelation. If we go into this and think, no, it's 100% literal. Jesus does not look like a lamb that's been slain, a bloody lamb that's been slain.

[38:09] It's like. It's as. There's a lot of that throughout Revelation. We're told that right at the beginning, and then we see that phraseology all throughout it. He's like and as.

[38:20] And his eyes. It moves on to his eyes. What does it say about his eyes? They were as a flame of fire. Hebrews 4.13. It says, Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

[38:38] His eyes. His eyes are bright. Right? Very bright. They're all seeing. There's nothing hid. There's going to be nothing hid from these eyes. The fact that we do not have to fear those eyes any longer, we are not going to see those eyes in judgment, we're not going to be like, wah, does not lessen the intensity of their gaze.

[38:59] It is an intense gaze to look into Jesus' eyes. It's purifying the fire of his eyes. Psalm 11, verse 4 says, The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.

[39:10] His eyes behold. His eyelids try the children of men. What are those eyes? Those are eyes like fire. Under the fire of Jesus' gaze, one of two things will happen.

[39:22] You will either withstand that gaze, or you will wither beneath it. It's one of two things. If you remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul is saying that no other foundation can any man lay except that which is Christ.

[39:35] But be careful what you build on that foundation, whether wood, hay, or stubble, or gold, silver, and precious jewels, because your work is going to be tried by fire. And that which remains, you will receive reward.

[39:48] But that which is burned up, you will suffer loss. Not your salvation, because it specifically says, but he himself shall be saved, that person, yet is by fire. Have you ever tried to build with jewels?

[40:02] I've never had too many jewels to build with. But I think it would probably take a while. You know, a little diamond here, a little diamond there, a little super glue. It's going to take a while. Much quicker to build with wood, hay, and stubble. You know, you can build that fast.

[40:14] But it's not going to withstand the fire. You may have a super structure of wood, hay, and stubble. It all burns up. And maybe my little structure of jewels is only that big, but it lasts. So be careful what you build with.

[40:29] I think we'll just finish at verse 15 here. We'll look at the stars next time. And his feet were like unto brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters.

[40:44] What does brass symbol up in scripture? Do you know? What? What? Judgment. When we see brass in scripture, it usually refers to judgment. What was interesting, or what's the characteristic here about his feet?

[40:57] Were they just brass? What does it tell us that's happening with these brass feet? They did what? Burned in furnace.

[41:08] You guys are so talkative tonight. It's hard to keep it down. I know you're probably sitting there like, he doesn't usually do this. What's going on? They burned in a furnace.

[41:20] The idea is that they are like the color of molten brass. They're just glowing. Like they're still just in that furnace. Why? Jesus alone is able to stand in judgment over sin because he first stood alone in judgment for sin.

[41:40] He is the only one who ever stood in that furnace of sin, of the judgment for sin, and came out the other side. He withstood it. And here's his feet still glowing, in a sense, still showing that like, yes, I overcame.

[41:55] Jesus is the only one who have ever withstood in the midst of the judgment of sin. Many have passed through the judgment of sin, but Jesus withstood it in the midst of it. And it's as if his feet are still there, burning.

[42:08] You know, he's going to have, we don't see this. John doesn't give us the account of any scars in his hands, but they're there. But he does say, hey, his feet, it's like they're still in that furnace. Still glowing.

[42:19] And then, lastly, as we close tonight, the last thing is this, his voice.

[42:30] The voice that John hears behind him. And his voice as the sound of many waters. In scripture, when you see, especially in the Psalms, you'll see the nations referred to as the flood, or the water that comes against God's people, or the floods that shall overflow, the nations.

[42:50] And Jesus' voice, it is the sound of many waters. It's like, well, what does that mean? I think what it means is Jesus' voice is a voice that rises above all other voices of the world. It drowns out everything else. When Jesus speaks, everything else is drowned out.

[43:02] So, Psalm 29.3 says, Oops. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is upon many waters.

[43:13] His voice overshadows all other voices. You know, I don't know how noisy it was on Patmos, where John was at this time. But I don't think he was like, guys, guys, quiet. I heard something. I heard a voice behind me.

[43:24] No, this is unmistakable. He knew this voice. And we'll pick up next time in verse 16. But there's so much. And when we get into the churches, the seven churches, just the same.

[43:37] But most everything we looked at tonight is just observation. It's observing what does the text say. And you don't have to know where all the cross-references are.

[43:47] Like, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is upon many waters. That fits perfectly with this description of Jesus. You don't have to know that. When you're studying the Gospels, you don't have to know that what I just read was a prophecy fulfilled in Isaiah.

[44:00] And this principle that Jesus is teaching, Paul's going to expound upon and make a doctrine. You don't have to. If you just observe the text where you're at, the Word of God is alive and it will speak to you. But the thing is to observe it.

[44:12] I think going back to the beginning, if I can find that one spot, where he tells them what to do with the Word. There it is.

[44:24] To see, to write, to send. If we take the time to dig into God's Word and to look at what it actually says, it's fascinating. Fascinating. Most of my time studying is just having enough time to do that.

[44:37] To be able to see what is happening here. Not just read it and be like, well, yep, there's Jesus in the midst of the candlestick. One life on the Son of Man. Well, wait a minute. What's a lampstand? There's seven of them. What are they doing?

[44:48] Why are they doing that? They're all separate. What's going on here? Oh, Jesus says that he spake unto the churches. Why is it plural like that? Why is it separated out? Just asking these questions of the Bible.

[44:59] The Holy Spirit will give the answers if we observe what's there. So we don't have to know. You don't have to be like, well, I can't study the Bible because I don't know all those cross references. I never used to either. But to be able to take the text and observe it, say this is what's happening, understand it, and then God will begin to bring the interpretation.

[45:18] Oh, that's why. That's why that connection is there. I've never seen that before. Like seeing this, the see, write, and send, and just looking up the definitions of like, what is see, what is write, and what is send, it's just kind of mind-blowing.

[45:32] To observe, to witness, to pay attention, to record, preserve, remember, pass on, share, don't keep. That's the gospel. That's what we're told to do with God's word and with the gospel. So as we go through Revelation, twofold, to study the book, but also to see how to study the book and just to enjoy it together.

[45:49] But next time, for next time, read ahead. There's only a few verses this chapter left. And look on your own. What are characteristics of stars? There's seven stars. What are some characteristics of stars?

[46:01]  Why is Jesus calling them stars in this point? And then how does that relate to him?