The Terrifying Comfort

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Don Filcek; Revelation 1:9-20 The Terrifying Comfort

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I'm grateful that you've taken the time out of your busy week to come together to worship God as his people. And I'm thankful that we are able to have this place to meet in.
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If it's your first time with us, I'd like to extend a special welcome to you and just say, if you'd be willing to, at the end of the service or during the connection time, go out and visit the welcome table out there.
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There's a free coffee mug there for you. Our way of saying thanks and that we are glad that you are here with us this morning.
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And then if you'd please fill out the connection card that you received when you walked in. That just helps us to have your information.
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But equally, we do send out a weekly email that's called the e -cast. It's a primary way for you to stay connected with the different events and activities.
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It's got links to our Facebook page and to the blog and to the podcast and all those kinds of things.
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So it really is the primary way of communication here. So if you're not receiving that e -cast each week, then you probably aren't getting all the information that is available for you.
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And then also remember that we don't pass an offering plate here. But you were provided with an envelope. You can do one of two things.
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You can either give through that envelope and turn that in in the black box, the same place where you turn in the connection card, out on that welcome table in the lobby.
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Or you can recycle that card. We just don't want those to end up in the garbage. We can reuse that envelope if you're not going to use it to give this week.
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And so as far as just stewardship, it's good if you're willing to just recycle that. And there's a place right out there by that black box where you can just slide that envelope.
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And it can be reused next week if there's nothing in it. And so again, welcome. And then one quick announcement before I introduce the sermon text for us this morning.
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It's been our goal to grow the board of elders here at Recast now, specifically as Kyle stepped down and then as Zach is going to be going to Indonesia with his family.
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And I just want to explain to you that the elders are a significant help in guiding the church spiritually and administratively.
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And since administration is one of my weak points, it's very important that we have a good group of elders that are helping me to think through the administration of the church and holding me accountable and working us in the right direction.
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We recently added Mark Downing and Bruce French to the board and grateful for their addition and we're getting them up to speed.
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And now Steve Isham has felt led by God to join in that same process. And so excited and grateful that the
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Lord has led in that direction for him to step forward and say, yeah, I'd like to enter that as well.
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Our goal has been to have, my goal has been that by this fall we would have five, an elder board of five and he would be the fifth.
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And so excited and grateful for that. But since we just went through the ballot process,
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I don't feel like I need to get a whole lot into depth about that process. And at the same time, just to remind you all that there are gonna be ballots available.
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We are going to give three weeks for you to return those, particularly because there's a holiday weekend in the middle of that. We usually have two weeks.
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But I want to reemphasize what we're doing here. This is not a popularity contest. This isn't if you like his hair.
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This isn't if you like his family. This isn't, it's about if you identify something in his life that maybe we haven't identified as elders that you would say, hey, you know,
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I'm kind of concerned about this. And we would want you to be direct and honest about that. Now I know that that can be awkward in a culture where we don't necessarily like confrontation and things like that.
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But on the ballot, there's a place for you to identify all the, it identifies on the ballot, all the different qualifications of elder.
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You can leave positive. If he's had an impact, if Steve has had an impact in your life, you can leave some positive there.
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Obviously in that same place, if there's concerns that you've had. Certainly if he's cheated you in business, we would want that to show up on this, okay?
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I just want you to know that. Like this is the place and the time. And one of the reasons we go through this process as a congregation is because the current elders don't have as many eyes as all of you have.
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And so we want you to basically say, to confirm what the elders have determined, and that's that Steve is a qualified individual for this.
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So the elders have already determined that. We said, we believe that Steve is qualified for this position, that's our stance. But we would entertain anybody coming to us and letting us know otherwise.
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And so that's where the ballot comes in. There is a vote. He does actually need to receive 85 % affirmation from the congregation, actually from the membership.
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We do allow anybody to submit a ballot. We wanna know your thoughts and your concerns and your questions and things like that, despite the fact that it's gonna be the member's vote that ultimately counts.
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So if you have further questions, you can come up to me or one of the other elders and talk with us at the end of the service and just ask about that.
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But ballots are available out there. Don't be intimidated. Those of you who filled that out for the last two, maybe you're like,
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I already did that. I mean, that was, there was a lot to that. Don't feel like you have to put something on every single line.
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If you're like me, you feel like the tendency, if there's a line, I'm supposed to write something in it. Don't feel obligated to do that, but where you know his life, certainly fill that out.
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And if you have something, please don't shy away from being honest and direct about it. This morning, we're gonna be continuing on in the second sermon in a series called
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Lord of the Seven. You can see the graphic up there on the screen. And despite the looks of, well, maybe you can't, but despite the look of the sermon graphic, you can actually see it on the front of your worship folder that you got there too.
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This is not about the Lord of the Rings, okay? But it is about the Lord of the churches.
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That is what we're looking at here in our text as we dive into the book of Revelation, the
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Lord of the church. And this morning, we will see that Jesus is indeed a powerful and mighty ruler who is not distant from his church, but is among his churches.
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He is walking among us and he is with us as his people. And that's a significant comfort, right?
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How many of you are comforted by the thought that Jesus walks with us? Are you glad for that? At the same time, you're gonna see a little bit of maybe an oxymoron in the title of my sermon this morning as a terrifying comfort.
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Have you ever been terrified by something that equally comforted you? I mean, it was a bit of a stretch and your wheels are turning in your mind.
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You're like, I'm not sure what that implies. Well, we're gonna see that as we dig into this text. We're gonna see what is a terrifying comfort.
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And we're gonna figure it out that Jesus Christ can approach us and appear to us as terrifying and equally comforting at the same time.
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This morning, we will see a terrifying image of Jesus that if it was drawn by a gifted artist might make us fearful at first glance.
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It would be a scary sight. And yet Jesus says that he has revealed to us in his divine power and his burning judgment reaches down in our text to comfort and to speak words of strength to his follower.
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Our text this morning is gonna set the stage for what's gonna prove to be a more direct address to these seven churches.
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Throughout chapters two through three, we're gonna see a specific address to each of the seven churches. And as we walk through that, we'll see exactly why
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I believe that those things and why God revealed those things to us as a church here in 2015.
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But even as we cover what really ultimately in the book of Revelation is still introductory material, it is powerful for us.
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Even in its introduction, even in the introduction, it is powerful, especially when we consider what is being introduced or rather who is being introduced.
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Because throughout these three chapters, we're gonna see that the introduction is ultimately not of the book, but the introduction is of the
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Lord. The introduction is of the author of the book who ultimately really in essence is
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Jesus Christ himself. And so we're learning about him. It's the revelation of the revealing of Jesus is what we're reading about.
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That's what this book, all 22 chapters, is ultimately about. And so I'd ask you please to turn over in your
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Bibles to Revelation chapter one, verses nine to 20. Revelation one, nine to 20. If you don't have a
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Bible on your lap or some kind of a device where you can navigate to a Bible, if you'd do me a favor and just raise your hand.
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Mark and Mike are back here holding Bibles and they can bring you one. We just want everybody to have a copy of the word of God on your lap so you can follow along and read.
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I actually kind of like it when people aren't necessarily making eye contact with me when I'm up here, but you're looking at the word. I trust that that's what happened.
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You're not checking the text or the score or whatever, but I don't know. I like to think from up here that you're looking at the word.
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So hopefully that's the case. Revelations one, nine through 20. In recast, just a reminder,
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I like to say this every week, but this is God's word for us this morning. This is what he desires for you and I to hear.
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So let's listen in. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called
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Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was on the spirit on the
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Lord's day. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Canaan.
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Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning,
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I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
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The hairs of his head were white like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire and his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace.
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And his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars and from his mouth came a sharp two -edged sword.
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And his face was like the sun shining in its full strength. When I saw him,
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I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not,
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I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades.
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Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are, those that are to take place after this.
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As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in song this morning. Father, I rejoice greatly in the opportunity that we have to gather together in your name.
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I recognize that we've come from all different kinds of issues, struggles, blessings, benefits, good things that have happened this week and it's a hodgepodge even as we've gathered together.
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Some are feeling down this morning and discouraged. Some are feeling built up and ready and energized. Some had time to prepare their hearts for this time of worship this morning together in the congregation.
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Some have had barely the time to even get themselves around and together and some are here frenzied and frazzled.
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Father, all different kinds of things and we rejoice to be gathered together now. I pray that you would silence our hearts before you as we have an opportunity to encounter
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Jesus Christ. Father, I recognize that this image of him can be terrifying to many and as we contemplate and consider who he is to us,
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Father, I pray that you would help us to come into a recognition that even as he reached down to John and said, fear not, and comforted him.
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Father, that is the relationship that we have with you through your son, Jesus Christ. If we have indeed come to him by faith, trusting in him.
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If he is our king, then we indeed are loved by you. So Father, I pray that that would motivate us, that would move us to a place of worship, that would motivate us and move us to a place of exalting you above all things.
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Father, I pray that this band would not get in the way, that the circumstances around us would not get in the way, that the setting and the weird things that are written on the wall in a cafeteria would not get in the way, but Father, ultimately that you would be raised up glorious, it would see you seated on your throne and is worthy of our worship this morning.
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Father, thank you for the gathering of your people. Be honored and praised by our voices this morning.
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In Jesus' name. Well, thanks a lot to Dave and the band for leading us in worship.
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It's always a great thing to gather together, and although I hope that you're worshiping God all throughout your week, there's something really awesome about gathering together with God's people and getting a chance to talk to each other and sing to each other about how great and awesome
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God is. So I encourage you to get comfortable and go ahead and have your Bibles open to Revelation 1, 9 through 20.
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You might've lost your place somewhere in the shuffle there, so have your Bible open. That's the outline. You're not gonna see an outline on the
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PowerPoint. You're gonna see an outline through the word of God, and so it's gonna be kind of verse by verse as we go, and so you can see that the things that I'm saying are coming from God's word.
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I want you to have that in front of you. And again, I encourage you to get comfortable. If you need any more coffee or juice or donuts, while supplies last up front, you can take advantage of those.
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And then I ask that you please use the restrooms on this end of the building. Men's are upstairs, women's are downstairs. We've got a hall monitor out there checking.
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We just wanna keep the bathrooms, keeping track of who, no. No, that's not, keeping the kids safe.
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Down at this end, we just ask that you let those bathrooms that are on this end be used for the children's ministry and all the adults to use the ones down there.
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So that helps us out quite a bit. Some of you that are here, you identify, and you know what
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I say when I say some of you have a super sensitive conscience. You live with that every day.
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Some of you in the room know what that means. When you were a child, your father just had to look at you in a certain way, and you would fall in line, right?
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And some of you as fathers know exactly, you have some kids that are like that, just a stern look, and they're like, oh, dad,
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I'm sorry. And then there are others of us in the room who would defiantly note to our parents, maybe under our breath, that spanking didn't hurt, right?
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You know what I'm talking about? Any of you ever get a second, you don't need to raise your hand, but you ever get a second paddling to try to make it hurt?
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I don't know. So some of you know there's a defiant streak in some of us, and some of us are pretty compliant, and we have a sensitive conscience.
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And so as we come to this text this morning, we're gonna be affected in different ways as we see an image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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The image that we behold is gonna impact us in various ways, depending on our bent and our personality.
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But I would suggest to you that if we understand this, as followers of Jesus Christ, if we understand this text properly, we should find ourselves rejoicing in delight rather than cringing in fear by the end of the message, by the end of our time together.
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Rejoicing in delight that this one is for us. Let's begin, let's start at the beginning with verse nine here.
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John has been clarifying who he is throughout this introduction, kind of telling us who he is and how he came about this process.
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Remember that this is a word transmitted by God to Jesus, to an angel, to John, to us in writing.
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And that was actually declared for us back at the very beginning of this chapter. And so he's been clarifying who he is.
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And in this text, he simply identifies with his audience by saying, I'm John, and I'm your brother and partner.
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I'm your brother and partner. And he isn't declaring to these churches that this letter is being written to, or even to us that he's a partner in business, or a partner in the law firm, or a partner in the practice.
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But he's a partner with the church in three distinct things. Three things that I think are valuable for us to think about in terms of our life.
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He says, I'm a partner with you in tribulation. I'm a partner with you in the kingdom. And I'm a partner with you in patient endurance.
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A partner in these three things, tribulation, the kingdom, and patient endurance. And these three things tie together in a glorious picture of the real
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Christian life. What it means to live on this fallen planet. Hence, the present time for us is marked by tribulation, by difficulties, by trials of all kinds, as James would put it.
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The future is characterized for us as his children by a kingdom that's gonna be finally consummated.
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It's gonna be finally realized. The seeds of it are planted in our midst now. They are here. It's not that the kingdom is just merely something future.
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It is something that is here, and it's blossoming, and it's beginning to grow. But it's not completely what it's going to be.
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It's like when you plant a seed, and Jesus said the kingdom is like a seed that's been planted. But when it finally grows, and finally all the branches are there, then everybody's gonna come in and like birds nesting in those branches.
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But for now, it's in its infancy. It's growing. And so he says, I'm a partner with you in that, in that glorious future.
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That's a reality. But the gap between the tribulations, and the trials, and the difficulties, I wanna even say that you encountered at least something this week that could be categorized as a trial, a difficulty, something that was an obstacle for you.
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Five of us, the rest of you are living, you're just living the good life, right? I think we all probably know that there's something that we've encountered this week that's been somewhat of a trial.
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Maybe if you're married, I already know what it was. You already had some kind of disagreement with your spouse or something.
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I mean, it's happened, so we can be honest about these things. But you've had trials. And the gap between this time of tribulation and that future glorious perfect kingdom with no tears, no pain, no suffering is called in this text, patient endurance.
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That's just what it is. That's what that gap looks like. So that a summary of the Christian life could look like this.
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We endure trials, suffering, and all kinds of tribulation now.
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And our role currently is patient endurance while we await a glorious kingdom that will be without trials, suffering, and tribulation.
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Anybody excited about that? But for now, for now, what is the calling on our lives?
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Patient endurance, patient endurance. And John says, I'm a partner with you in all of these things.
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I live the same kind of life that you live, says John, just because I was an apostle, just because I walked around with Jesus and was with him and saw his miracles, that doesn't mean
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I live in a different realm. I'm not on cloud nine here. I don't skate above all of these things. I'm a partner with you in all of these things,
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John says, which is very valuable. He can relate to them. He can relate to us. He knows where we live.
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John says, I'm with you when you face various trials. John says, I feel you, because he himself had been rejected by his own, he goes on to say at the end of verse one.
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And when he was serving an actual exile, a physical exile on the island of Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
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Those phrases, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, let us know what is well -documented in church history, and that is that John was exiled to this small island off the coast of modern day
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Turkey because of his preaching of the gospel. The Romans didn't like it. The Romans didn't like it, that Christians were not bowing the knee to the emperor.
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And so in light of that, they were being persecuted. They're being exiled. It's some, some would say that the
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Romans at least had the nicety to not put him to death. Some, some like ancient kind of questionable sources say, well, he was, they attempted to put him to death.
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He didn't die, some different things like that. It's hard to tell what exactly from his history versus fable, but when it comes down to it, it's pretty well -documented by multiple sources that he was indeed exiled.
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And at least we know this from secular historians that this island of Patmos was used for exile.
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So we know that outside of the Bible, there are history documents that declare that this set of islands was utilized for exile.
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So it just lines up perfectly with what we see outside of the Bible, that this is indeed true. He was exiled, he says by his own mouth, because of the word of God and his testimony of Jesus Christ.
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So one Sunday on the Lord's day, the Lord's day was the time that the early church would have referred to as this day, the day that the early
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Christians began to gather together, not on the Sabbath, which was Saturday for the Jews, but they began to gather together on the
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Lord's day Sunday because of the resurrection. And so one Sunday while John is there in exile, serving out the remainder of his days on Patmos, he says he was in the spirit, in the spirit.
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Now the phrase in the spirit needs a bit of explanation because to me, at least to my ears, it sounds kind of mystical and magical.
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Does it to you as well? What does it mean to be in the spirit? And for me, it's kind of like, is that a trance?
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Is that like a special state of mind? Is that a certain, like did he do a mantra and do some kind of meditation to get into an altered state or something like that?
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But after doing some study, I came to the conclusion that being in the spirit simply means that John was in a state of deep reflection on God.
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And in a sense, honoring and glorifying God with his life in some way, shape or fashion, he was not in some kind of trance, but he was in a mental place of putting the life of the spirit above the life of the flesh.
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In other words, he's walking in the spirit, walking with God. It doesn't necessarily indicate to us specifically what he's physically doing at that time.
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We might jump to the conclusion, and I don't think it's an unfair assumption that he's maybe praying. Maybe he's reading his
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Bible. He's certainly taking God over what he can see with his eyes at this point in his life.
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But this could be as simple as taking some time out of a busy day to close the office door and spend some time in prayer. You got a meeting coming up and you're pressed against a deadline or something, and where instead of just going to work on that project, you spend some time praying about it beforehand.
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That would be in the spirit. Or taking the time out of the start of a busy day to read scripture and pray and reflect on God's truth as he's gonna go with me in this day.
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And when we take God seriously and take his ways over the world's ways, we could be said to be in the spirit.
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So I would suggest to you that to say somebody's in the spirit does not indicate anything about what their body is doing.
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They could be working on the line at their factory job. They could be drawing up plans at an architect table or at the computer with Cat, or they could be doing all different kinds of things.
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You could be in the spirit and teaching a classroom full of students. You can be in the spirit and be doing a bunch of different things, but it's a question of where at that point your motivations and your priorities are.
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Are you putting God above the other things in your life? And we certainly talked about that in a series about work, how even the very work, the very physical things that we do can be ultimately worshiped to God if we are doing them in the spirit.
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So while in this state, whatever he's doing, John heard a loud voice like a trumpet behind him, okay?
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How many of you ever, you've heard a trumpet. You ever heard a live trumpet? Any of you ever have a kid that played the trumpet?
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I do, so, and that thing can get loud. It can get really loud. And this is like a trumpet behind him.
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Now that might, how many of you, if you just raise your hand, that might make you jump a little bit. Like you're in the spirit, whatever you're doing.
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If I was sitting in my chair where I read my Bible every morning, we've got a nice setup now.
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We've moved recently, many of you know that. We've moved and we've got a really nice property.
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We're very blessed by God. There's woods out there. We've seen some turkeys on the property and just kind of getting used to living out in nature and stuff.
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And so we've got these two chairs that we set out in the bay window where Lynn and I will sit in. We'll read our Bible in the morning.
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So just kind of a really cool setup there and get a cup of coffee and sit down and spend time with God and kind of try to start the day in the spirit.
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Many of you have ever had it? Like it doesn't always last long, but you get at least that sliver, right?
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But starting the day like that. Now, if I was sitting there in my chair with my Bible and suddenly a loud voice like a trumpet shouted at me to write something down,
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I might say, can you hold that thought for a minute? I'm gonna go change my undies. I'll be back in a second, right? I'm saying, too juvenile?
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I don't know. My wife did not read my sermon before I said this. She might've edited that one out, but got past her.
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This voice, okay, so you're in the setting though. You're feeling that, but you're like, I mean, boom.
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And there's like a blaring trumpet, a voice like a trumpet telling you, write. And you're like, yeah, okay. Yeah, whatever,
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I mean, whatever you need. But the voice gives him explicit instructions, clear instructions to record.
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You're about to see some stuff, dude. You're about to see some visions. You're about to see some stuff.
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And so I want you to record what you're about to see, John, says the voice, loud and clear.
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And not only that, but what you write down then, what I show to you, what you see, I want you to send to seven specific churches and they're listed for him.
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The voice tells him, I want you to send this letter to these seven churches. Now, the churches are listed here and all are within a circle of the
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Western end of modern day Turkey. These are real churches. These are not metaphors. These are not figures of speech.
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They're not some kind of a symbolism. They are real literal churches that existed at the time of John.
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And he says, I want you to write what you see in this vision and then I want you to send it out to these seven churches.
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Now, the cities are not all, the cities that house these churches are not all equal in size. They're not all equal in importance.
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And so many scholars have debated about why these seven churches and specifically many scholars are concerned with why
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John or Jesus himself, why would he have left some churches out? So an illustration of that is, you see absent from the list is the town of Colossae.
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Colossae had a vibrant, active church. The word, the book to the Colossians goes to that church, to Colossae.
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Why is that one left out when it's only 10 miles away from Laodicea? Laodicea is a little podunk town.
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It'd be like President Obama coming to Matawan and having a big rally here instead of, why not
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Kalamazoo? Why not Grand Rapids? Why not someplace that's larger? Why would you come to little old
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Matawan? And that's kind of like where scholars are debating about this. But I have a simple guess as to why these seven churches, just a guess, but I think it's on pretty good grounds.
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For whatever reason, Jesus saw in these churches, these seven churches, as we're gonna walk through over the next few weeks, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, what
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Jesus says to these seven churches. I believe that these churches represent strengths and problems that would speak to churches in general down through the ages.
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So they're a good sampling, they're a good representative of the types of issues that you and I face now.
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The types of good things that churches have, the types of bad things that churches have as features of them.
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And so he picked out these seven, Jesus picked out these seven, as exemplary, as models for us.
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Some to good examples, some to bad examples, most of them a mix of the two. And we're gonna see that.
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But he's basically splattering out an example. And also, there's also the issue that a lot of scholars mention, that it's just very easy to travel around these cities.
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So it'd be very easy to disperse these letters with one person traveling, having it read in one church, carrying it to the next.
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Remember, no email. They couldn't text this out. No Google Docs where they could send it out and all of them see it at the same time.
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None of that business. So somebody actually physically carries this handwritten letter that John is gonna record and literally carry it from place to place to place.
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So these seven churches form a circle that are only like 10 to 15 miles apart, forming a 60 mile arc or so, 60 mile diameter of a circle.
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So, so far John doesn't even know who startled him though. I mean, we still left him kind of standing there in his mess.
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And so he just knows firmly the loud command to write. That's all he's heard so far.
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He knows the churches he's supposed to send, so just like you would do if you heard something loud behind you, I hope you'd turn around to find out what it was.
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Some of us might in our terror not even look, but he turns around and the first thing he sees is seven lampstands.
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Now a lot of times we immediately, when we see seven lampstands, you see seven lamps.
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You thought you just heard me say he turned around and saw seven lamps. He didn't see any lamps.
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He saw seven what? Lamp stands. Lamp stands.
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Now, I kind of assume that when you see a lampstand, you probably, there may very well have been lamps on top of that.
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I don't know. I actually kind of wonder somewhat if the seven stars weren't intended to be the seven lights of the lamps themselves.
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But whatever, as we go through this, there's something significant to him saying not lamps.
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Lamps produce light. He says, no, I'm identifying, and as we're gonna see in verse 20, these are the churches.
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He says, these are actually lampstands. They were raised metal furnishings that a lamp would be placed on so that it would provide light to a larger area.
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And remember, no centralized electricity or anything like that. So how are you gonna best utilize? You're not gonna necessarily hang a lamp up close to the roof.
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Why? Fire might be a problem. And so you would have something about two to three feet tall that you would set the lamp on.
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That would be usually made out of metal so it wouldn't burn, and it would be standing there so that the light would light up more of the room.
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And the higher you get it, the more it lights up. And ultimately, the point being, a lampstand holds the light up higher for all to see.
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And as I mentioned, according to verse 20, Jesus gives us a bit of a key to what a couple of these symbols are, and he mentions the lampstands specifically and says they represent the seven churches.
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So those seven churches that this letter's gonna go out to are represented by these seven lampstands. Now, can you imagine any reason why a lampstand is an excellent symbol for a church?
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Raising up what? The light for all to see, right?
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Raising up the light for all to see. A church in a community like Thyatira, a church in a community like Sardis, a church in a community like the ancient
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Philadelphia or the modern Philadelphia, or a church in Matawan, Michigan, exists to raise the light higher.
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We don't, hear me carefully, a lampstand, how much light does a lampstand produce? None. But it has the power to take that which is light and convey it.
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Much like when we talk about lighthouses, we don't ever separate, how many of you ever think of, well, they're lighthouses, but some of them don't have light in them?
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Well, no, you don't separate those out. We think the lighthouse is the thing that's producing the light, but actually there's a huge lamp in there that is producing the light.
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It's still a lighthouse even if it doesn't have light coming out of it. But at this, I mean, my point being that we don't produce the light, but the light is indeed there in us to spread out to others.
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Like a lighthouse is built high so that the light can shine out further, the church is a place of the lifting of the light, and the light of the world is who?
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Jesus Christ. Recast church exists to raise up the light so that it can shine out brighter to a world around us.
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Our effect on our community is central to what it means to be a church. Here in this text, it's actually a defining point.
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It's the symbol of the church is that we are those who lift up the light and spread it to others.
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This is one of the reasons, by the way, that recast has the S, recast is not recat.
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It needs the S in there because that would be weird anyways but recast is recast because it's got simplicity in it.
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The S stands for simplicity, that's one of our core values. And what that boils down to is I don't know how well we've communicated that over the years, but the goal is that we literally keep our programming low.
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We're intentionally under -programming. I mean, that's a stated goal that we don't have a multitude of programs.
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I don't know if you've noticed that we don't have a program every night of the week. Have you guys noticed that? And some of you have come from churches that have that kind of programming.
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But it is not so that you can pick up a new Netflix series. Okay, that's not the goal, we're intentional about this.
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And I know you might do all different kinds of things with the quote unquote spare time that you have because the church isn't programming your every night of the week.
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But one of our goals is that you would lift up the light to the community through that extra time.
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It's intentional. We want you to be engaging the community either by volunteering, volunteering in the schools, volunteering for the band boosters, volunteering for the athletic boosters, volunteering some of your time to have hospitality towards your neighbors.
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When's the last time you had a neighbor in your community over for dinner, over for lunch, over for something like that?
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What about neighborhood Bible studies? Just to open up your home and say, hey, we're gonna have a study on Thursday nights for our neighborhood.
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Anybody who wants to come, just send out and make up little postcards and invite people. Sports ministry.
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Do you see your kids' involvement in sports? How many of you have a child that's involved in sports in here? Not gonna ask you to come forward or anything, but a lot of us do.
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Okay, and so the question is, are you using that as a ministry opportunity or is that just kind of filler time?
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Or is there opportunities that you have to maybe even engage, maybe you have your team and you invite them to a Bible study.
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Maybe you do something like that. I don't know what it might be. But whatever creative ways you can come up with to raise up the light of Jesus in our community is what it means for us to be the church.
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So consider that quote -unquote extra time. Many of you are like, what do you mean extra time?
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I don't have extra time. Think about it. Pray about it. Consider it. Consider what is your time going towards and are there opportunities that you have to engage your community with the light that we have through Jesus Christ?
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But since we know from verse 10 and verse 20 that the lampstands are the seven churches, it snaps into focus to me what is so cool about verse 13.
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Look at verse 13. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and then a description is following.
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One like a son of man stands in the midst of those lampstands, those churches, and he is not distant.
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He is not far removed, but he is in the midst of his people.
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He is in the midst of his churches. And the phrase son of man traces all the way back to the book of Daniel where Daniel is prophesying about the
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Messiah. And it's very clear that he's talking about the end of days. And he prophesies that one like a son of man would come in the clouds.
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And then Jesus actually adopts that metaphor for himself saying, I am the son of man from Daniel and you will see the son of man coming with the clouds, he declares openly.
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Saying, I am that day. I am that. That prediction of Daniel is made true in me. He called himself constantly the son of man multiple times during his earthly ministry.
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Go throughout the gospels and you'll see him identified as the son of man. So there's no question that this is an indication that who this is in the midst of the lampstands is
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Jesus Christ himself. And he is going to be revealed further to us through this book that is called the revelation of Jesus Christ by the way that he appears to John.
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So hold on tight as we paint this picture of Jesus Christ. As John turns his focus, he's heard the voice of the trumpet, he's heard the command to write and he turns his attention to the lampstands and then suddenly something grabs his attention significantly, it is this figure in the midst of the lampstands.
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He is clothed with signs of the priesthood. The golden sash around his chest and the long robe speak of his high standing in his priestly role.
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A sash for a workman would be worn around the waist like a belt, but only in dignity would it be worn across the chest.
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The long robe indicating a priestly type of role. The hairs of his head are white like wool, no further white like snow says
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John. It's obvious that the whiteness of his hair is so stark that it's worthy of a double mention.
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Two different symbols are given to that description of how white his hair is. White hair, by the way, was an ancient symbol of wisdom and knowledge and they are clearly double emphasized how much wisdom and how much knowledge he has.
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His eyes were like a flame of burning fire with the power of judgment. His feet were like bronze showing a solid and powerful foundation.
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His voice was already likened to a trumpet but now it's further illustrated at the sound of a waterfall.
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How many of you have been to Niagara Falls before? Are you ever? I've been there multiple times and it's still, it's like even in my mind
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I don't think about it until you're just about rolling up there and you realize how loud it is. You hear it before you ever see it.
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You notice that? Sometimes in the Smokies we'll be looking for waterfalls and new trails to hike so we'll hike a new trail that tells us it's gonna go to a waterfall.
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And we'll be thinking, oh, we must be almost there because you can begin to hear the waterfall and like an hour later you're still walking.
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Okay, you're still on your way to this waterfall. Well, maybe we lost, I don't know, but you know what
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I'm talking about. You can hear it long before you ever see it and there's power in the voice of Jesus in this text. It says like many waters, the voice of like a huge waterfall crashing.
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Now the fact of the matter is, even as I've dissected this and kind of walked through it, there's a reality that we live in a very technical society.
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Even the English language is super good at precision for technical speaking. It's not very good for emotional talk.
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We've got one great word that talks about loving tacos and loving our wives and loving God, right? That's terrible.
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Okay, so we're not precise when it comes to emotions. We're very precise when it comes to technical speaking.
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And so we're much more technical than the ancient Jews ever were. We're even much more technical than the ancient
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Greeks were. So when we encounter symbolism like this, you know, our tendency might be to like try to draw a picture of this.
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You can get online and find all kinds of pictures. None of them are any good to share with you, but you get the sword coming out of the mouth and the burning eyes, and all of a sudden it's kind of looking a little disrespectful.
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But that's the image, and everything kind of looked kind of dire and really dark and brooding and all of that stuff.
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But we encounter the symbolism and imagery, our tendency is to dissect it and to analyze it so that we can understand what each metaphor is.
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Kind of like what I just did a little bit. Like what does white hair stand for? What does the bronze feet stand for? What is all this about?
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So to illustrate this, I think sometimes we analyze the parts and we miss the whole thing. We miss what's supposed to strike us because we're busy looking at the feet, or we're busy trying to figure out how long this robe is, or we're busy trying to figure out how bright is a bright face and all of this stuff.
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And so to illustrate this, I'd like you to think back to the last time you saw a real live rainbow. Double rainbow all the way, whatever.
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When's the last time you saw, dude, it's so beautiful, what does it mean? When's the last time you saw a full -on rainbow?
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And I love seeing a rainbow. Anything that's really cool? Everybody becomes a child when you see a rainbow. Oh, did you see it, did you see it?
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And everybody's like, wants to be the first one to tell everybody that there's a rainbow, and you know what I'm talking about? So think about the last time you saw a real rainbow, and then consider, how much attention did the green part get?
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How much attention did you give to the green part in the rainbow? But the green, look at the green, it's just so awesome.
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No, it's the whole thing that matters, right? It's the bringing all of that together that's just like, pop, and wow, and it's like getting down to the big picture of it, right?
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It's not just the color green in it that's like, really super cool, but it's the whole thing in it that's really awesome, or the yellow just, whatever, it's that the whole thing is there in the sky in its arc and its beauty.
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I would suggest that there's something about taking in an entire rainbow and its magnificence that is lost when it's broken down and analyzed.
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And somebody, any of you ever see a rainbow with somebody who is a science wizard? Like, 42 degrees from the angle of the sun, and it's producing the water, and the water droplets are just at the right angle, and da -da -da, it's like, shut up,
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I'm just enjoying this for just a second here, okay? You know what I'm talking about, okay? So it's the beauty, it's the glory, it's not meant to be analyzed, it's meant to be taken in, and then, of course, we know it's supposed to be a reflection of God's glorious promise to us, his patience with us, his kindness towards us.
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There's all kinds of imagery there. So we could nitpick that image to pieces, this image of Jesus here in the text, and lose the majesty of it.
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And I found myself asking some kind of far -out -there questions, just kind of like thinking through things, and of course, part of my role is throughout the week to be analyzing this, so I'm, if his face in verse 16 is like the sun in all of its strength, then how could you see his eyes?
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How could you see his tongue like a two -edged sword if it's so bright and brilliant? How long was his robe?
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Well, not too long, because you could see his bronze feet, and I'm kind of analyzing this and kind of working through it. I think what all of us are meant to do in this text is take a step back, take in the entire image.
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You're having a quiet time alone, whatever, reading, meditating, you're in the spirit, you're thinking about the things of God, you're focused on him, you're motivated by him.
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When you hear a loud voice behind you, you turn around, and this is the image you see. Now, if the voice didn't startle you, if you just got nerves of steel, and the voice of the trumpet behind you didn't freak you out, what you see probably would, right?
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Would this image kind of evoke some fear in you, do you think? Not only just thinking that you're alone, but now finding out, boom, this guy is standing there.
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And everything in this symbolism points to power, to authority, to wisdom, strength, holiness, judgment.
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And these are symbols that are not lost on John. And he falls on his face as though he is dead.
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John didn't respond by asking, hey dude, what's with the bronze feet? Why the fire eyes, dude, what's up with that?
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He is moved to fall on his face, and he doesn't need any explanations. He feels it right away, and boom, he's down on his face before this one.
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John, who had spent a lot of time with Jesus in the flesh, John, who had walked the roads around the
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Sea of Galilee with Christ, John, who ate the Last Supper with Jesus, John, who saw him crucified, who watched him ascend, falls at the feet of Jesus as he is revealed in his full glory.
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Boom, like dead. And this is not, by the way, the first time that John fell at the feet of Jesus.
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You could jot this down if you wanna look back at it, but Matthew 17, six, we have the account of the transfiguration where Jesus took three of his disciples,
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Peter, James, and John, up to a hill and revealed his full glory, or at least pulled back a portion to demonstrate to them his glory and his majesty, and he shone out in his brightness.
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And in that instance, what did Peter, James, and John do? They all, it says in Matthew 17, six, they fell at his feet.
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Appropriate response when we encounter the holiness of God, when we see Jesus as he really is, would be to fall at his feet.
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When Jesus is shown as he truly is, he is fearful to behold in his power, his wisdom, his holiness, his authority, and his right to rule and to judge.
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And people experience that when they come into his presence. Now, I grew up in a church that seemed to like to leave the story right here.
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Like we could just close off our Bibles and apply this baby, right? This is where we can bring some thunder into your lives and get you guys to really obey the church.
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I mean, God, get you to really obey, right? Jesus there with blazing eyes, ready to consume us in judgment.
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Many churches love to wield fear as their primary tool to get people to fall in line with the church or with God or whatever.
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And so this passage could serve to offer some serious incentives if fear was declared to be the primary motivation to get our lives in order, right?
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You see how this could be used to, Jesus is there, man. He's got the sword coming out of his mouth, ready to cut us down.
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He's got his eyes blazing. And you better get your life in order right now. Stop having fun.
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Stop having sex. Stop having anything because he is coming with his swordy face. He's ready.
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Now, I don't mean to make fun of it because isn't the image terrifying? Isn't it? Is it really terrifying?
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It should be. The sword isn't coming out of his mouth for nothing. He's holding those seven stars in his hand.
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Maybe he's gonna crush them, right? We'll see. What's he gonna do next? His burning eyes seem to gaze right into our very souls, seeing every single time we stole the cookies from the cookie jar.
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Not only that, but it's like his eyes can see every time we lied about it, right?
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So what is going on here? Every time we lied about it, sword, sword, ready to come in for the kill.
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Now, I certainly don't mean to minimize this terrifying image, but I think it exists for us in Revelation for a very different reason than to scare you into obeying him.
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It is here for a very significant reason that is other than that, if you are indeed his child.
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If you have indeed been purchased by his blood, his relationship to you is very different than this. And so there are various reasons why he appears this way to John.
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And I'm gonna walk through that in the application here at the end. But it's not, he doesn't appear to him to say, shape up.
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Because look back at verse 17. John is scared stiff. He's at the feet of Jesus, like dead.
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And what does Jesus do? When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but, something different, something contrary than what
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John thinks is gonna happen. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not.
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I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades.
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Fear not, my child. Fear not, says Jesus to John, the disciple who loved him.
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Fear not, says
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I'm the first and the last, which is a title only ever given to deity. And Jesus in this text comforts his child.
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He comforts the one who has been purchased by his blood. Jesus identifies himself further.
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He says, I'm gonna, this is a book about revelation. This is about revealing Jesus. Here's a revelation. I'm the living one.
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Now that title might be a bit underwhelming if you don't know the whole story. So I could call myself a living one, and big deal because like there's seven billion of us right now that are living ones.
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We're alive currently, so that's kind of a cool thing. So what's the big deal about Jesus calling himself the living one?
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Well, it just is simply this. Jesus died, certifiably dead.
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It was over for him, but now he's alive forevermore. He says that in the text.
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I am now alive forevermore. Jesus was not resuscitated. Jesus was resurrected.
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It's a big difference between those two terms. He's not resuscitated. He was resurrected to eternal life.
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And to him has been granted the keys of death and Hades. He is the one over death and the grave.
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What does that mean? What I'm gonna say next is pretty radical, and if you believe it, it defines you.
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When Jesus says come to life, he is declaring here that he has the power to say come to life, and that which is dead comes to life.
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That's the kind of power that Jesus has. The grave and Hades hold nothing on Jesus anymore.
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He defeated them at the resurrection. And so when he says come to life, that which is dead comes to life.
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And Jesus comforts the terrified John by a comforting touch. Just like Jesus was known to do many times, lepers never receive physical touch.
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Multiple times in his life, Jesus reached down and touched a leper, somebody who was sick. And here he reaches down and touches
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John and reminds him that he, that I'm Jesus, who was once dead, and now I'm eternally alive, and I am the one who has authority over all life.
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And now John doesn't declare it, but I assume is in a better state to receive his instructions, and Jesus says, now where were we?
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Now that we've been reacquainted, you remember who I am, now let's move on. Oh, that's right,
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I was telling you to write these things that you just saw. So write them. Write what you saw, write what you're seeing now, and write what
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I'm about to show you. And that's the book of Revelation. The things that you just saw,
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John, you just encountered this, you can get up off your face and we can start this now. I'm gonna show you all this stuff. I want you to record it, and I want you to send it out.
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And then Jesus identifies the lampstands in verse 20 as the churches, and the stars in his right hand is the angels of the church, and we need to talk just a brief moment about the angels of the church.
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The angels of the church is the last thing that requires interpretation in the passage, and it's a bit tricky, because each address to each church moving forward is, and to the angel of the church of Sardis, and to the angel of the church in Thyatira, and to the angel of the church in Pergamum, and to the church, the angel of the church in Smyrna.
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So each portion of this letter is gonna be written and addressed to an angel over a church.
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Well, what does that mean? And he says, these seven stars in my hand, these are the angels of the churches. And so some believe that this text shows that each church has assigned an angel over it, kind of like the concept of guardian angel.
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You know, some people believe that each person has a guardian angel, or something to that effect. It's pretty loose in Scripture, where you could get that from.
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But here, some people believe each church, like there's an angel of the church of Rechast, who is a messenger between us and God, in some way, shape, or form, that is watching over us in some way.
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Struggle with that, because why would John be told to write a letter to angels? I struggle with that a little bit.
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There's each scholar's opinion and thought, kind of, they have to equally share some of the things that they don't agree about it.
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Another prominent theory is that the angel of each church is its shepherd or pastor, a human being who is leading and guiding.
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And this kind of makes more sense in light of the letter to each church being addressed to them. So if the angel is the pastor, then this letter would be addressed to them, and helping them to see the state of the health of their church, and that would kind of make sense.
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The problem with this is that stars, in ancient Jewish writings, are most often a symbol for real angels, real angels, those real beings.
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And so, that's a drawback to that. But I lean towards the seven stars being the seven leaders of the seven churches.
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I wouldn't, you know, you hold a gun to my head and say, do you believe that? I don't know what you're talking about. But it's not that firm of a conviction, and at the same time, that's where I lean.
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But it makes little difference. When it really comes down to it, it does not make a crazy huge difference who the stars are, whether they're literal angels, whether they're pastors, whether they're the messengers who are bringing the letter back and forth, whatever it might be, because they are all in, where are they located according to the text?
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In the right hand of Jesus. So, whoever they are, however they're guiding the church, whatever role they have in the church, they are the possession of Christ, and they are in his right hand of power.
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He is involved with them. He is walking among the lampstands. He is involved, and he is powerful in his presence with his people.
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So, why does Jesus reveal himself in such a terrifying way to John? I think we might wonder that.
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That might be a good question for us to ask. And I think from an explanation of this, we can draw out our applications from this week.
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Why would he show himself in this, what would be a terrifying way that results, ultimately, in the end, in comforting
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John, and he's gotta comfort him back out of it. Well, I think that Jesus reveals himself this way to highlight to us that he is indeed holy.
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I think that's number one. So, if you're taking notes on this, there's four reasons, which will result in, hopefully, applications that God will draw out in your heart and soul.
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Jesus is indeed holy. In a word that, in a world that increasingly believes that Jesus is everyone's bestie.
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That's the way our world kind of views it. And people will use Jesus for their bumper sticker, for their cause, for whatever reason. Have you ever noticed that Jesus often gets used for opposite bumper stickers?
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Jesus is a Republican sometimes, he's a Democrat sometimes. I've seen it on bumper stickers, so I'm like, Jesus is confused, politically,
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I think. But, so, I mean, you know what I'm talking about? Jesus is for everybody's opinions.
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Well, that can't be right, can it? Is Jesus for everybody, even when they disagree? So, is he everybody's bestie?
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I think it's important that we start with the image of Jesus that scripture gives us. This needs to be the bedrock.
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Is Jesus compassionate? Yes. Is he full of grace? Yes. Is he coming back in swift and complete judgment?
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Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. All of those are true. If you find yourself as a wayward
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Christian, by the way, I think that this is important for us to understand when we talk about this holiness and this image of Jesus. If you find yourself wayward, you know that you've walked with Jesus, you know that you understand who he is and what he has done for you, and you've asked him to save you from your sins, you've asked him to lead you, but you found yourself either addicted to something or mired and dirtied or soiled by the trappings of this world.
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I wanna encourage you to think about this image and say, is he looking at you with eyes of fire right now?
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I don't think so. I think he looks at one like that with eyes of compassion. I think he reaches down and says, come on, let's walk together for a while.
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Let's pick this up. I died for you. I love you. And I can help you through this.
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If you would humble yourself and submit to me, we can work through this together. Because my blood has covered that.
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I died on the cross for that sin, for that addiction, for that habit, for that whatever it is that's got you slogged down.
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But don't give up the battle. Anybody who has given up the battle and says, you know what, I just sinned and sinner's gonna sin and I'm just gonna keep doing what
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I do, I say, whoa, wait a minute, do you understand grace? Do you understand the cross? Do you understand that he died on that for those very sins and that if you just keep doing it without any concern, you're not in the battle, you're not in the fight, that's a concern.
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He wants you to realize how much he loves you. He has bought you with his blood. But towards those who have rejected
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Jesus, towards those who have said, king, I don't need a king. I make a great king myself. Others should be under me.
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I don't need Jesus, I don't need a savior. What's a savior talk? I can pull myself up,
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I've got this. Towards those, he is a consuming fire.
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He warned, please come to Christ if you find yourself in that situation.
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You need a savior, you cannot do it alone. And some of us in our youth thought we could do it alone.
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Any of you, that's your testimony? You thought you've got this one and this one and this one and this one? And eventually, it took some years for those unfinished self -improvement projects to pile up before eventually you found yourself deep in it.
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And then, by God's grace, he said, enough? And some of us said, no, not yet. So we heaped on more.
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Enough yet? He comes to the door, knocks. Can I come in yet? Nope, nope, I've got this. And eventually, we were crushed down so far that we said, just please open the door and come in.
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Please, I can't do this. And you get to the realization that I can't. I need Christ.
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The second thing is he is powerful to protect us. This image that we have is valuable for Christians to see him in his power and his authority, in his supreme authority and his right to judge.
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In the midst of persecution, as this is gonna be a central theme, Jesus doesn't show up to John. He's been exiled for the cause of Christ, for goodness sake.
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He doesn't show up to him to scare him to death so that he's just terrified of Jesus.
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He's already been pushed down by tribulation. Instead, he shows up to show how terrifying he can be. How many of you know that you need, at times, to see how terrifying
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Jesus can be so that you go, woo, he's on my team, woo? He's not,
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I mean, I think of it like this. Imagine you're pinned down on a battlefield, jungle all around, and you know the enemy is closing in, and your numbers are dwindling.
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And all of a sudden, you hear, it's off in the distance, some choppers coming in. And your first notion is, oh no,
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I don't remember calling for backup. Are these the enemies? And as you see through the binoculars, the enemy choppers, or the choppers are coming in, and they're armed to the teeth, and you're like, what is going on here?
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We're about to get smashed. How exciting would it be to find out those choppers are on your side?
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Would you be delighted that here comes some choppers armed to the teeth? Now, when you don't know whose side they're on, that might be kind of terrifying, right?
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There might be a moment of terror that results in comfort. And that's what we're seeing here.
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And so as we walk throughout this week, I hope that you can be motivated by freedom, the freedom and protection, instead of fear that comes from this image of Jesus.
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If you've asked Jesus to save you, and you're asking him to lead your life, then you have nothing at all to fear.
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Nothing at all to fear. The third thing, he is the rightful judge. Jesus reveals himself in this way to John, to remind us that he is indeed the one who has the right to judge all people.
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The loving Jesus is very acceptable in our culture. The judging Jesus, not so much. And we need this ongoing reminder that there is a real judgment that is coming.
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And Jesus, who was slain, the one who endured the gravest of all human sins, the slaying of the
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Son of God himself, he is indeed the one who will judge the souls of all mankind. Now, for those who are in with Jesus, here comes the comfort.
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We need not fear his judgment. There is therefore now no, what? No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But know that he is indeed the standard. He is indeed holy.
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He is indeed the judge. Loving him and walking by his spirit is the place that he wants us to be.
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And knowing that he died for us and that love that's been expressed for us should motivate us to honor him in our lives.
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The fourth thing, lastly, we need to be reminded of who he is to many others in our community.
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To see Jesus this way, have him reach down and comfort us and go, well, he's on our team, and just to walk away from that, just kind of like, well,
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I feel good about that, without recognizing that that is the image of Christ in reality with no comfort to many.
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That is the reality for many in our community. This image of fear and terror is softened for those of us who are all in with Jesus.
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But for many in our community, for many of our neighbors, for many of our coworkers, even for some of us, some of our family members, the fear will not be comforted away.
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Terrifying thought. We must be moved to bring people to the king and encourage them to step out of their own kingdom and into his before it's too late for them.
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So as we come to communion this morning, we express in our gathering that we needed the sacrifice of Jesus to avoid him coming to us in that judgment without comfort.
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We needed Jesus to avoid condemnation. When we step to the table, and there's four tables in the room, and in a minute, the band's gonna come up and lead us in a song, and during that song, we can go as you pray, and you get an opportunity to interact with God, and you can get up and go to the table and take communion.
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And as you step to that table, what we are announcing to everyone here, what I'm announcing when I go to that table is, hey, everyone,
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I'm a broken and busted up sinner who needed dramatic steps from God to be made okay.
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I needed the son of God to come in flesh and die for me and stand in my place so that I don't have condemnation on me.
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That's what we're saying. The notion that we come to communion because we've got it all together couldn't be further from the truth.
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We must come to communion in humility, saying that even today, I need the work of Jesus Christ in my life.
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If you've asked Jesus to save you, if you've asked Jesus to be your king, then please come to the table and celebrate your desperate need that was paid for on the cross when
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Jesus died for our sins. And praise God that Jesus did not remain in the grave, but he arose victorious, and he now holds the keys to death and the grave.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for this image of Jesus that we can identify and understand how utterly and completely holy he is, that he is indeed in the place and position of authority, that he is indeed the rightful judge, and that all around us need to submit to him.
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Father, I pray that you would open up avenues and opportunities in our week to share the glory of Jesus who loves people and wants to see them in his kingdom.
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Father, I pray as we come to communion that we would reflect and rejoice in the cross and by taking the bread to remember his body that was broken in our place where we deserve to be punished.
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He took the punishment for us. Father, his blood was shed for us, and we remember that as we take the cup and the juice to remember that.
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Father, I thank you for the unity that we experience here in this communion together, Father, that we are indeed demonstrating a unity with Jesus, but a unity together, and as we take this together, we're reflecting on all of our brokenness, all of our neediness, and in humility we come to the table.
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Father, go with us throughout this week and help us to walk in joy, rejoicing that we do not have
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Jesus as our judge, that we have no more condemnation, but that we have the hope of eternity in your kingdom together after just this while, a patient endurance, in Jesus' name.