Revelation 1:9-20 The Terrifying Comfort

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

It's got links to our Facebook page, and to the blog, and to the podcast, and all those kinds of things. 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.

And then also remember that we don't pass an offering plate here, but you were provided with an envelope. You can even do one of two things. You could either give through that envelope and turn that in in the black box, the same place where you'd turn in the connection card, out on that welcome table in the lobby.

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. 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, 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.

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. And I just want to explain to you that the elders are a significant help in guiding the church spiritually and administratively.

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.

We recently added Mark Downing and Bruce French to the board and grateful for their addition, and we're getting them up to speed. And now Steve Isham has felt led by God to join in that same process. And so excited and grateful that the Lord has led in that direction, for him to step forward and say, yeah, I'd like to enter that as well.

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. And so excited and grateful for that. But since we just went through the ballot process, 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. 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. But I want to reemphasize what we're doing here. This is not a popularity contest. This isn't if you like his hair. This isn't if you like his family. It's about if you identify something in his life that maybe we haven't identified as elders, that you would say, hey, 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. But on the ballot, there's a place for you to identify, it identifies on the ballot, all the different qualifications of elder.

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. 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?

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.

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. 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, 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.

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.

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. 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, 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. 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. 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 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.

This is not about the Lord of the Rings, okay? But it is about the Lord of the churches. That is what we're looking at here in our text as we dive into the book of Revelation, the 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.

He is walking among us and he is with us as his people. And that's a significant comfort, right? 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.

Have you ever been terrified by something that equally comforted you? I mean, a little bit of a stretch and your wheels are turning in your mind. 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. 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. 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.

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.

Our text this morning is gonna set the stage for what's gonna prove to be a more direct address to these seven churches. 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 I believe that those things and why God revealed those things to us as a church here in 2015. But even as we cover what really ultimately in the book of Revelation is still introductory material, it is powerful for us.

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. Because throughout these three chapters, we're gonna see that the introduction is ultimately not of the book, but the introduction is of the Lord.

The introduction is of the author of the book who ultimately really in essence is 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.

That's what this book, all 22 chapters, is ultimately about. And so I'd ask you please to turn over in your Bibles to Revelation chapter one, verses nine to 20. Revelation one, nine to 20. If you don't have a 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.

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. 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's happening. 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. So hopefully that's the case.

Revelations one, nine through 20. In recast, just a reminder, 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. 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 Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was on the spirit on the 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.

Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and I'm turning, 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.

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. 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 and his face was like the sun shining in its full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not, 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. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are, those that are to take place after this. 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.

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. 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.

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. Some are feeling together in the congregation.

Some have had barely the time to even get themselves around and together and some are here frenzied and frazzled. 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 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, 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, 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.

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.

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.

Father, thank you for the gathering of your people. Be honored and praised by our voices this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, thanks a lot to Dave and the band for leading us in worship. 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 God is.

So, I encourage you to get comfortable and go ahead and have your Bibles open to Revelation 1, 9 through 20. 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 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.

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. 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. We just wanna keep the bathrooms, keeping track of who, no. Keeping the kids safe. 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.

So that helps us out quite a bit. Some of you that are here, you identify, and you know what I say when I say some of you have a super sensitive conscience. You live with that every day. 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? 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, 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, 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?

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. 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.

The image that we behold is gonna impact us in various ways, depending on our bent and our personality. 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.

Rejoicing in delight that this one is for us. Let's begin, let's start at the beginning with verse nine here. John has been clarifying who he is throughout this introduction, kind of telling us who he is and how he came about this process.

Remember that this is a word transmitted transmitted by God to Jesus, to an angel, to John, to us in the writing. And that was actually declared for us back at the very beginning of this chapter. And so he's been clarifying who he is.

And in this text, he simply identifies with his audience by saying, I'm John, and I'm your brother and partner. 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.

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. 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. 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 Christian life.

What it means to live on this fallen planet. The present time for us is marked by tribulation, by difficulties, by trials of all kinds, as James would put it. And the future is characterized for us as his children by a kingdom that's gonna be finally consummated.

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. 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. 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.

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. That's a reality. But the gap between the tribulations, and the trials, and the difficulties, I'm gonna 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.

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. Maybe if you're married, I already know what it was.

You already had some kind of disagreement with your spouse or something. 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.

That's what it is. That's what that gap looks like. So that a summary of the Christian life could look like this. We endure trials, suffering, and all kinds of tribulation now, and our role currently is patient endurance while we await a glorious kingdom that will be without trials, suffering, and tribulation.

Anybody excited about that? But for now, for now, what is the calling on our lives? Patient endurance, patient endurance. And John says, I'm a partner with you in all of these things. 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 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, John says, which is very valuable. I mean, he can relate to them. He can relate to us. He knows where we live. 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. 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.

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 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. And so in light of that, they were being persecuted. They were being exiled. Some would say that the Romans at least had the nicety to not put him to death.

Some ancient kind of questionable sources say, well, they attempted to put him to death. He didn't die, some different things like that. It's hard to tell what exactly is history versus fable, but when it comes down to it, it's pretty well-documented by multiple sources that he was indeed exiled.

And at least we know this from secular historians that this island of Patmos was used for exile. So we know that outside of the Bible, there are history documents that declare that this set of islands was utilized for exile.

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. 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 Christians began to gather together, not on the Sabbath, which was Saturday for the Jews, but they began to gather together on the 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. 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.

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? 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?

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. 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. 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.

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 Bible. He's certainly taking God over what he can see with his eyes at this point in his life.

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, where instead of just going to work on that project, you spend some time praying about it beforehand.

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. And when we take God seriously and take his ways over the world's ways, we could be said to be in the spirit.

So I would suggest to you that to say somebody's in the spirit does not indicate anything about what their body is doing. 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 CAD or they could be doing all different kinds of things.

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.

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.

So while in this state, whatever he's doing, John heard a loud voice like a trumpet behind him. 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?

I do, so, and that thing can get loud. It can get really loud. And this is like a trumpet behind him. 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. If I was sitting in my chair where I read my Bible every morning, we've got a nice setup now. We've moved recently, many of you know that. We've moved and we've got a really nice property.

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. And so we've got these two chairs that we set out in the bay window where Linda and I will sit in and we'll read our Bible in the morning.

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. Many of you have ever had it? Like it doesn't always last long, but you get at least that sliver, right?

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, 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? 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.

Sorry. Sorry. This voice. Okay, so you're in the setting though. You're feeling that. You're like, I mean, boom. And there's like a blaring trumpet, a voice like a trumpet telling you, write. And you're like, yeah, okay.

Yeah, whatever. I mean, whatever you need. But the voice gives him explicit instructions, clear instructions to record. You're about to see some stuff, dude. You're about to see some visions. You're about to see some stuff.

And so I want you to record what you're about to see, John, says the voice loud and clear. 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. 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 Western end of modern day Turkey.

These are real churches. These are not metaphors. These are not figures of speech. They're not some kind of a symbolism. They are real literal churches that existed at the time of John. 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.

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. And so many scholars have debated about why these seven churches. And specifically, many scholars are concerned with why 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. Colossae had a vibrant, active church. The word, the book to the Colossians goes to that church, to Colossae. Why is that one left out when it's only 10 miles away from Laodicea?

Laodicea is a little podunk town. It'd be like President Obama coming to Matawan and having a big rally here instead of, it was like, why not Kalamazoo? Why not Grand Rapids? Why not someplace that's larger?

Why would you come to little old 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.

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 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. So they're a good sampling, they're a good representative of the types of issues that you and I face now.

The types of good things that churches have, the types of bad things that churches have as features of them. And so he picked out these seven, Jesus picked out these seven as exemplary, as models for us, some to good examples, some to bad examples, most of them a mix of the two.

And we're gonna see that. 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 the city. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

And so he just knows firmly the loud command to write. That's all he's heard so far. He knows the church is he supposed to send what he writes. 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.

Some of us might in our terror not even look, but he turns around and the first thing he sees is seven lampstands. Now a lot of times we immediately, when we see seven lampstands, you see seven lamps.

You thought you just heard me say he turned around and saw seven lamps. He didn't see any lamps. He saw seven what? Lamp stands. Lamp stands. Now I kind of assume that when you see a lampstand, you probably, there may very well have been lamps on top of that.

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. But whatever, as we go through this, there's something significant to him saying not lamps.

Lamps produce light. He says, no, I'm identifying, and as we're gonna see in verse 20, these are the churches. 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.

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. 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.

That'd 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. 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.

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. 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? Raising up what? The light for all to see, right? 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 Philadelphia or the modern Philadelphia, or a church in Matawan, Michigan, exists to raise the light higher.

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. 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?

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. It's still a lighthouse, even if it doesn't have light coming out of it.

But it does, 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. 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?