Have you read through Revelation lately? People have all sorts of feelings towards
this incredible book. Some are afraid of
it. Some are mystified by it. Some are fanatical about it. But did you know that simply by reading it
and taking it seriously God promises it will be a blessing to you? In the opening verses, in verse 3 it says so,
“Blessed
is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear
it and take to heart what is written it, because the time is near.” We should make reading Revelation a New
Year’s Resolution and get that blessing.
And if we did we would find that the book is
written in an orderly way. The content
of Revelation is divided into 3 categories:
past things, present things, and future things. You can see in verse 19 that Jesus Himself
gives us this pattern for the book [Read verse 19]. Notice the past, present, and future
aspects. If you start reading you will
find that chapter 1 had to do with the things Jesus told John, “you have seen”
– that is past. John describes for us
where he was when Jesus Christ appeared to him, what Jesus looked like, and the
commission that Jesus gave him. Then, in
chapters 2-3 the focus shifts away from Jesus appearing to John and now Jesus
is addressing the 7 churches.
Today we will be in Revelation chapter 1. Why?
Because I would like to take a tour through the first 3 chapters of the
book in a series we can call, “Seven Stops”.
I am calling it seven stops because in chapters 2 and 3 Jesus Christ
speaks 7 specific messages to 7 specific churches. Think about that. It’s about 90-95 AD and John the Apostle is
told by Jesus to write down the message that He had for these churches and send
it to each of them. The churches are
listed in chapter 1:11, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the 7
churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
These 7 locations are clustered together in what is It doesn’t take long
for us to realize that the messages Jesus gave to these churches have
application for us today. My goal is for
us to study these 7 messages to these 7 churches.
There are just several things I want us to
know from chapter 1 that will help us going into chapters 2 and 3.
#1: The Possessor of All Knowledge (v1)
The
first thing we should see here is that God knows all things. He is the Omniscient One. Notice what is going on here: God is revealing things that only God
knows. Verse 1, “The revelation of Jesus Christ which
God gave to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known …”
God has all
knowledge and here we see Him uncovering some of what He knows which has been
laid down for us in the book of Revelation.
See also over in verse 14 as John is describing the appearance of Jesus
Christ “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes
were like blazing fire.” His eyes have a
piercing effect, able to see right through you.
There is conveyed here Someone whose eyes are not darkened with
ignorance but rather whose eyes see everything within the light of
holiness. Then notice in verse 19 Jesus
tells the Apostle his commission, “Write, therefore what you have seen, what is
now and what will take place later.” In
other words, get your notebook out because Jesus Christ is about to show you
things which only God knows. He is giving
revelation.
The Greek word for
revelation is where we get our English word Apocalypse from. It’s a word that means to unveil, to
disclose, to take the cover off. Well
there is no knowledge hidden from God, there is nothing to be known that God is
ignorant of. You see, omniscience is an
attribute that only God has. Only God
knows everything, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 139:12, “even the darkness will not be
dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to
you.” Or as Daniel said in
Daniel 2:22, “He reveals deep and hidden things He knows what lies in darkness and
light dwells with Him.” Or how
Paul said it in Romans 11:33, “Oh the depths of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been His counselor?” Or
it is as God Himself said in Jeremiah 23:24, “Am I only a God nearby and not a
God far away? Can anyone hide in secret
places so that I cannot see him? Do not
I fill the heaven and earth?” declares the LORD”
How does it
affect you to know that there is Someone who knows that much? It can be comforting, or, it can be
threatening, or it can be both, as in the case of the 7 churches. You see, the omniscience of God is thread
right through the 7 letters to these churches.
There is a phrase that shows up
in each message to each church that reminds them that the message Sender sees
everything in their church. It’s the
phrase, “I know”. In 2:2 Jesus says it
twice, “I know your deeds…” Then in 2:9
He says it to the church of Smyrna, “I know your afflictions…I know the
slander…” Then to Pergamum in 2:13, “I
know where you live – where Satan has his throne” Then to Thyatira in 2:19. In 3:1 to the church of Sardis. In 3:8 to the church of Philadelphia and in
3:15 to the church of Laodicea. The
underlying message is that Jesus sees all things, knows all things and hears
all things. There is nothing hidden from
Him in any of His churches.
How about us at
EFC? Do we live with the conviction that
our every word, our every move, our ever thought is perceived by the Lord?
#2: The Promise (v3)
Secondly
we need to see the Promise. Notice verse
3, “Blessed
is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear
it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” The promise is that if you read this book,
the book of Revelation, and you believe it, you will be blessed. This blessing is one of 7 found in the book
of Revelation.
The
thing for us to see here is that the all of God’s word is revelation. Yes it contains predictions and promises
regarding the future, but, it also reveals who He is, what He is like, what He
has done, and what His will is for us.
His word answers for us many things about reality that we would not
otherwise know. God reveals things. He has revealed a promise for those who take
to heart what He has revealed.
And that is a
promise for all of God’s revelation, from Genesis to Revelation. When we take to heart the word of God and
believe it with all our hearts, it blesses us.
Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but, on every word that comes from
the mouth of God.” Our Family
Worship memory verse this month comes from Job 23:12, where Job said, “I
have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.” Yes and when you find the blessing of God’s
word you will not give it up, like Peter in John 6 when Jesus was abandoned by
the crowds He asked the 12 disciples if they wanted to leave Him too. Peter said, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the holy One.” And just the same, if we go to the words of
Revelation we will find blessing.
Now, this has
specific application to the first 3 chapters of Revelation. Jesus is going to speak to some very specific
issues in the 7 churches. He makes
promises to each of the churches at the end of each of His messages. Notice with me each of the promises Jesus
makes [Read each of the promises to the 7 churches]
Any time you see
a promise in Scripture you need to be reminded of the faithfulness of God. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should
lie, nor a son of man, that he should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” God will do what He says He is going to
do. You can take His word to the
bank. You can put your full confidence
in any promise He makes. He is faithful.
#3: The Person (v12-16)
Lastly
we need to see the Person of Revelation.
Jesus Christ. The whole book is
actually the revelation of Jesus Christ, not only is He revealing things to
John, but, it the revelation John is getting is all about Jesus. Jesus is the principle subject of
Revelation. He is the focus of all that
is going on in Revelation. And that is
seen clearly from verse 1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God
gave Him to show His servants…”
God took the
initiative here to reveal to us, the Church, to believers, more things about
Jesus Christ. This revelation is
intended for us. And the goal is that we
are seeing Jesus Christ more clearly for all that He is after reading this
book. That alone is a tremendous
What can we see
here? Well, we honestly could spend 2015
mining everything in chapter 1, but let us see just 2 things here: His Glory and His Authority. Both of these will be important to see before
we see His messages to the churches.
These messages are given by a Person, and for a church to respond the
correct way to these messages, they must see this Person in all His Glory and
see all His Authority.
First, we must
see the Glory of Jesus Christ. Just read
this description of what He looks like.
He is beyond human. [Read 12-16
again]. You have never seen anything
like Him before. It’s amazing to think
of Him when He came on this earth, He didn’t look any different from anyone
else. He didn’t stand out in His
appearance. Isaiah 53:2 says, “He
had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him.”
That’s what he
looked like then, but, not now. Now the
divine glory that is His as the eternal Son of God, the 2nd Person
of the Trinity, shines out in radiant splendor.
He has returned to His rightful glory that He left behind when He came
to this earth. In John 17:5 He said,
“And now Father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you
before the world began.” That is the
glory that Jesus wants us to see when he said only few verses later, “Father I want those you have
given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given
me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” Some bumper stickers say, “My boss is a
Jewish Carpenter”. Not ours, He’s not a
carpenter anymore. Our Lord and Savior
is the glorified and glorious Son of God, Jesus Christ.
This kind of
glory inspires a response. When we
behold His glory, we will not go unaffected.
Isaiah is the perfect example of this.
In Isaiah 6 He is taken up into the throne room of God and beholds the
glory of God. What is Isaiah’s
response? He offers himself to God to do
whatever God wants. He says, “Here am
I”. Each of the 7 churches need to see
this glory of Jesus Christ in order to respond to Him obediently. The first thing we need to see here at EFC is
the glory of Jesus Christ.
Secondly, this
scene in Revelation shows us the Authority of Jesus Christ. We see it in 2 ways. First the description [Read 12-16]. The appearance of Jesus here is strikingly
similar to that picture of God in Daniel 7.
Turn there with me. [Read verses
9-10]. This is a passage where we see
God Almighty seated in the highest courts of heaven about to exercise judgment
and authority.
Secondly we see
His authority in the fact that He is holding the 7 stars in His right
hand. It symbolizes His control, His
sovereignty – He has the churches in His hands.
According to Ephesians 1:23 He is the head of everything for the
Church. He is the authority of the
Church. At the end of Matthew before
Jesus went back to heaven Jesus said to His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me.”
Why does this authority
matter? Very simple: when He speaks the Church listens. And He is about to speak to 7 churches who
would be wise to listen. By reading this
book, Jesus is speaking to us today, and, we would be wise to acknowledge His
authority and listen.
Conclusion:
As we embark on a tour of the 7 churches of
Revelation we must realize 3 things:
that God possesses all knowledge, that He promises a blessing for those
who read this book, and that the Person of Jesus Christ must be seen in all His
glory and authority.
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