Already by John’s time, Christians could be found in every sector, every class, every station of life in the Roman empire. As citizens, they sought to regard the authorities as ministers. Ministers of God, that’s how the Apostle Paul described them, charged to promote the good and to preserve the peace. They therefore did as the apostles urged them. They prayed for them, and they obeyed them as far as they were able. They also included in doing that, they fed the hungry, they defended the disadvantaged, they rescued the children that been abandoned on the garbage dump outside the cities. They prayed and they testified to Jesus’ reign. And they pray Jesus’ words: “Thy kingdom come.” 

But ministers can become monsters. And in the pages of the New Testament, we find that those same ministers of state become monsters of state. As long as Christianity was seen as a branch of Judaism, it would be tolerated. In Roman law religion was a department of state, so there were eyes on all forms of religious movement. And after the fire of Rome in A.D. 64, Christianity came to be seen as an entirely new religion, apart from Judaism, and a pernicious religion at that, inviting a wide range of penalties. So that’s why John is on Patmos. He’s in a penal colony, he’s been taken away from Ephesus where he’s lived and worked, about 40 miles southwest, southeast rather, into the sea, into the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Patmos.  

In God’s economy, however, John’s faithfulness and witnessing to the revelation of the earthly Jesus now leads him to be entrusted with the revelation of the heavenly Jesus. One Sunday, he tells us, as he was worshiping, he was caught up in the Spirit. That’s kind of code language for the particular work of the Holy Spirit, in which he reveals God’s secrets to his servants, the prophets.  

You and I are not prophets. You and I don’t have these direct experiences of the Holy Spirit at work revealing God to us. Ours are second hand. But God’s work with John was a direct work. John had an encounter with God, and it proved to be for him what Jacob’s encounter with God proved to be for him, if you remember the story in the Old Testament.  

“And he said this place is the gate of heaven.”  

Genesis 28:17

For John, his exile on Patmos became a gateway to heaven. And as we read this the account of this in these verses, we learn two things. We’re only going to look at two points today: what John heard and what John saw. What John heard, follow with me the words: 

“I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet” 

Revelation 1:10

Like a loud reverberating trumpet with volume and penetration this trumpet-like voice. He doesn’t say he had a trumpet, by the way, it sounded like a trumpet. This trumpet-like voice was an authoritative summons to receive divine revelation. Mount Sinai was the great point of which God, you remember, revealed himself to Moses. Those first five books of the Bible are the result of God’s Holy Spirit working with Moses on the mountain. And the second great revelation that’s going to take place is when the Lord Jesus comes again.  

“And the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” 

1 Thessalonians 4:16

John’s experience is both pointing back to Moses’ experience and pointing forward to our experience which is yet to happen when Jesus reveals himself to us at the end of history. Now John has already heard the voice of God the Son. He quotes from him in verse 8,  

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come.”  

Revelation 1:8

Now he hears God’s words telling him to write. Look at verse 11:  

“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches.”  

Revelation 1:11

Which we saw last time represent all the churches, the church and its fullness scattered throughout the world and through the ages. He’s told to write these things down and to send them to the churches. Just like Ezekiel was told to stand on his feet and God would speak to him. Just as Isaiah was told to go and write it down and inscribe it in a book. So John hears the voice tell him that he is to write down what we are reading here. This revelation from God for us is the very word of God itself. 

But then secondly, and this is the larger part of this passage, what John sees. Let’s follow the words he tells us:  

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.”  

Revelation 1:12

So he turns to see a voice. Well, you say, that’s a bit strange, isn’t it? The older writers are right to remind us that this voice was not a sensory voice – the voice of God is not like a human voice that you’re listening to right now, there’s no there are no lungs that are inhaling air so it can exhale air again through vocal cords so that you can hear it. Somebody has said, one of the ancient writers Andrew of Caesarea says,  

“Spiritual seeing and hearing are the same things.”  

So John turns to see what he heard, and what he sees is the majesty of the presence of God and the voice of the divine Person who is speaking to him, and he uses all kinds of language to describe in biblical terms the vision he had of the Son of God himself.  

And there are records of the Old Testament, there are records of Zechariah chapter 4. There Zechariah saw two figures: he saw Jesus the high priest – Yeshua, Joshua the high priest – and he saw Zerubbabel, the governor or ruler of Judea. And he sees a lamp stand, a solitary lamp stand, and on it there are seven lamps. You can see the parallels with what we have here. That solitary lampstand represented Israel; it represented the church of God as God sees it in the world. There is one church, one holy catholic and apostolic church, only one church. That’s how God sees the church, the invisible church. And those lamps that are given come from the instructions that Moses received when he was building the tabernacle for the worship of God. Those lamps were signals of the presence of God in the holy of holies, in the church within the Temple of God.  

But now in John’s vision, John sees seven lamp stands, the same seven lights, this time in the heavenly, in from the heavenly point of view. This time we see the church in the world. The churches are named, you know. Did you notice a list of names there: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea? Here are the churches now from an earthly perspective. They are scattered on earth. Because of John’s experience of persecution, he knows the church on earth is fragile, it is weak, it is susceptible to evil deeds being done to it, and error being smuggled into it. And yet here he sees that these scattered churches, every bit as much as that great lampstand that Zechariah saw, are there in the presence of God. So wherever the churches are in the world, they are in the presence of God. Whatever you see and wherever you see them scattered across the face of the earth, the churches are in the presence of God in Heaven, as we’ll see. They are right there. They are never far from him, scattered though they may be on earth. When we gather for worship, we gather in Heaven with the angels and the archangels, with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with the spirits of just men and women who have already been made perfect. When we gather in worship here in the surroundings that we can see and sense, there are other surroundings that we can neither seen or sense, but which are just as real, and we’re in the presence of God. 

And in the midst of the lampstands, he says, there at the center, preeminent over them and central to them, was one like a son of man. That language son of man simply means a human being. The language comes from Daniel chapter 7,  

“where one like a human being,” he tells us, “was coming with the clouds of heaven and receives from the Ancient of Days a kingdom, a dominion.” 

The dominion is the world. So here’s what John sees. John sees a human being, one like a human being, he says, standing right there in the heavenly temple. Standing right in the center of the churches. Here is the Son of God standing, being responsible for the lighting of the candles, as it were, in the churches down below. Why? Because he is the Light. 

The Jews would recognize both Zechariah’s vision and they would recognize some parts of what John’s vision is in that they, in their Christmas, the Jewish Christmas, the Festival of the Lights – the lamps. And it’s quite appropriate that in December the lights and the lamps should be up outside your house if they are. There’s a kind of overabundance of them outside of mine, kept on finding more and more and out they went. But it’s quite appropriate that at Christmas we have light shows because Christmas is the time when the true Light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. The One that says, “I am the Light of the world.” 

The one who lights the lights that the churches are in the world, points of light, pointing to him who is the Light of the world, the churches are illuminated with the glory of Christ. Now you see how Christ is described here, like a human being, like a human being one like the son of man. This is the wonder of Christmas, that God the Son became a human being, without ceasing to be eternal as God. In the language one of the ancient writers, although it’s been attributed to many other people since then, but it goes way back in history,  

“The Son of God became the Son of Man, that sons of men might become sons of God.” 

When John says he saw one like the son of man, Victorinus of Petovium says, that that like is this,  

“He looks human, but there is a dimension that is strange to John, because he is resurrected.”  

“Because death has been destroyed, the risen, ascended, glorified Lord looks like a human being, but there’s a difference. Here is humanity perfected. Here is humanity death free. Here is humanity without blemish or spot or stain glorified in his human nature.” 

Victorinus of Petovium

Archimedes, another ancient father, reminds us that the expression “the son of man” is used here to remind us of what Jesus did at the Incarnation. 

“He humbled himself by taking on himself not only human nature, but by taking on himself the form of a servant, by becoming in the likeness of a man, conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary. He is born by a natural birth, a human being the word became flesh.”  

Archimedes

And yet what John’s vision is showing us this, that this One who became flesh remained in his divine nature even when he was living as a human being. He was God and Lord of all. The phrase “the Son of God” therefore, points us to a fully human life both body and soul. As God, he is unchangeable; as God, he’s immutable; as God, he cannot acquire any more to himself than he already is. But when he takes on our humanity, he takes on something that is mutable, that is changeable. He takes on and appropriates to himself the poverty of humanity. He became human and remained God. He took the form of a servant, while remaining fully free in his deity as the Sovereign Lord over all. He remains the Lord of Glory even when he’s a man, and as a man receives glory in his human nature. He has life in himself. He can call himself the Life, while he is also brought back to life in his human nature after his death. He remains the sovereign that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6, when he saw the Lord on the throne high and lifted up. Jesus never stopped being on the throne, high and lifted up. 

But in his human nature, as our mediator, by his obedience and by his death and resurrection he acquires dominion on our behalf, as our mediator, as the man, the son of man that John saw. And the son of man is both a kingly and a priestly figure. He has the long robe of the priest; he has the golden sash of a king. He is standing there, and he is supervising and guiding the churches. He’s going to be rebuking them and so on. He’s observing them, but he’s also working in the heavenly temple as a priest, doing what a priest does, trimming the lamps making sure the lamps are burning brightly observing the witness of the churches. He combines in himself those two figures that I talked about from Zechariah chapter 4 — Zerubbabel and Jesus – Joshua – who is the high priest. He takes both of their roles, priest and king, and he also takes on the role of the prophet. G.K. Beale puts it like this,  

“Between the two he secures the church’s fitness for service as light bearers in a dark world.”  

G. K. Beale

You know this son of man language then comes from Daniel chapter 7, where a human being, the son of man, approaches the Ancient of Days, the one on the throne, to receive dominion. As a human being the Ancient of Days, there in Daniel 7, is said to be seated as the prince and judge. 

“And the hair of his head is white like pure wool.” 

Daniel 7:9

Now read again John’s description of the son of man, the human being that he sees. John attributes to him what in Daniel is attributed to the one on the throne – divine attributes.  

“The hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow.” 

Revelation 1:14

John assigns to Jesus, the glorified Christ, attributes and titles that belong to the Father. In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel sees a man clothed in linen with a belt of fire – a belt of gold rather – and eyes like flaming torches. Here the Son has eyes like a flame of fire. People when he was in the flesh noticed that Jesus’ eyes flashed with quick intelligence, and when need arose with righteous wrath. Jesus saw what was in people. And Jesus in his exalted state searches the mind and the heart, he discerns the thoughts and the intents of the heart. So wherever you are, Jesus is knowing everything — everything that is in your heart and mind. And he goes on in verse 15:  

“His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a fire.” 

Revelation 1:15

In the visions of God in the Bible the visions usually draw from all kinds of areas of nature, material as well, and mineral, as well as fleshly or animal-like or human-like, which is appropriate. God made the entire universe with everything in it. The whole universe displays the glory of God. If you’re going to see the glory of God it has to be represented from our fleshly, human, creaturely perspective by using all the materials available for us to describe the indescribable and to comprehend the incomprehensible. 

“The feet were like burnished bronze.”  

Revelation 1:15

Strength and stability. Contrast that with Daniel’s vision in Daniel chapter 2, where he saw this great monolith and it was made of heavy metals down to the base. And the base was a mixture of iron and clay. The monument would be destroyed easily. But what he sees when he sees the Son of God in his deity as he does here, is strength and stability. His voice, he goes on to say,  

“…is like the roar of many waters.” 

Revelation 1:15

Again, this is a divine statement. Ezekiel writes,  

“Behold, the God of Israel was coming, and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters. “ 

Ezekiel 43:2

“The sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty,” Ezekiel says.  God’s voice is heard in Ezekiel in the temple. Here Jesus’ voice is heard in the temple context. The heavenly temple here is Jesus as God,  

“…and in his right hand he held the seven stars.” 

Revelation 1:16

Now there are many commentators over the years who say the stars are the ministers of the churches. I’ve always thought that was a little bit self-serving. Some would like to be stars, but we’re not. But I don’t think that’s the correct interpretation, just put that one right out of your mind. Let’s look at what he’s what he says here, let’s start with the right hand — the place of power, prestige, protection. Verse 20, he tells us the stars are the angels of the seven churches. “Well,” the pro-star ministers say “Well, ministers are messengers” — angels in that sense – but I don’t think that that’s what is in mind here.  

Let’s get the picture in our heads again: the churches are here described as seven sticks, candlesticks, and they’re in Ephesus, or they’re in Laodicea, or they’re in Philadelphia. But they’re also in the heavenly presence of God. And what is represented here is every church on earth is represented in heaven. Every church on earth has a heavenly correspondent to it, and that the heavenly bit – the bit you can’t see when we gather together like this, or when you’re watching my livestream – the bit you can’t see, the bit that’s invisible to our mortal eyes, that is secure in heaven in Jesus’ right hand. However fragile and brittle and unstable the church might be, wherever it finds itself in the world, its heavenly counterpart is secure in the hands of Jesus. The church is in his right hand. 

“And from his mouth there came a sharp two-edged sword.” 

Revelation 1:16

This is a divine image from Isaiah 11:  

“He shall strike the earth with a rod of his mouth.” 

Isaiah 11:4

Or Isaiah 49, Messiah says,  

“He made my mouth like a sharp sword.”  

Isaiah 49:2

Or Ephesians chapter 6,  

“The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  

Ephesians 6:17

And later on in Revelation, in chapter 19, we have a description of the armed and militant Word of God who emerges from heaven,  

“In righteousness he judges and makes war, and from his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron…and his name is King of kings and Lord of lords.”  

Revelation 19:15-16

The Word of God – Jesus is the Word of God. He speaks the word of God. He is the one who made the universe. Creation was made by the word of God. 

“All things were made by him.” 

John 1:3

It’s by the Word of God that you are remade, born again, transformed by the power of that Word. And in the end, it is the Word of God that will do battle against evil nations. In the end it is the Word of God who will work among the churches that compromise their faith and will remove their lamp stand. It is the Word of God that accomplishes everything that God intends. And you notice that there’s no hand that wields this sword. The Word is enough. The Word, the very will of God expressed by God, is enough to accomplish God’s purposes. 

Here we have Jesus in his prophetic office, and divine nature as the very Word of God. And his face, verse 16,  

“…was like the sun shining in its full strength.” 

Revelation 1:16

John had been with the others when Jesus was transfigured, when his face shone like the sun. But here John tells us, he saw the glory of the Lord unveiled in all its majesty and splendor like the sun at noon, too intense for mortal eyes to behold save in the Holy Spirit. The angels of the churches the heavenly counterparts of the earthly churches are called stars in Christ’s hand, but these lesser lights of earth and sky they fade into insignificance before the splendor of the sun in its strength. 

So here’s the scene: here we have Jesus, our high priest, in the heavenly sanctuary. Here we have Jesus as our King ruling over his kingdom. Here is Jesus, our prophet, holding out the Word of God. He is at the center, around him everything that lives revolves, everything that exists revolves. Around him are the burning candles in their earthly locations of his churches. He’s holding the heavenly representatives of those churches firmly in his right hand. His face shines like the sun in its strength.  

And you notice what John is doing here. Did you notice the repetition in John’s account of these words “as” and “like”? He’s doing what Ezekiel does in his vision. I love Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel chapter 1, when he’s describing what he sees in his vision and he says, 

“Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”  

Ezekiel 1:28

So you have the Lord, then you have the glory of the Lord, then you have the likeness of the glory, and then you have the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. In other words, what John is saying is this ordinary speech, human language, is inadequate to describe the divine. All that a prophet can do, and all that a human can handle is for us to use analogical language. Biblical authors, by the Holy Spirit, utilize human analogies to give us a sense of something that is beyond our senses, to give us an understanding of something that is beyond our understanding. So Daniel, for example, describes  

“…one whose face was like lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches.”  

Daniel 10:6

The Holy Spirit enables John to utilize language as he puts before us this vision of the glorified Jesus. We think of Saul, overwhelmed by the revelation of Jesus that he received on the road to Damascus, and it changed his life entirely. Because what John is describing in this vision is the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. John is echoing by way of vision what Paul says in Colossians:  

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”  

Colossians 2:9

That Jesus himself said,  

“He who has seen me has seen the Father.” 

John 14:9

He is the image of the invisible God. That’s what John sees, one like a human being, who is the image, that is, the thing you can see, that in some degree reflects the invisible God. And for John it’s overwhelming, and for us it’s overwhelming. And I would want to say that this is the great thing that the church needs to recover in our day. Because what Christianity has done for itself in the last decades throughout the Western world, what Christianity has done on these decades is to make itself an itch on the body politic and itch on the face of society to be scratched to have some lotion put on or to have an Elastoplast or something put over it. That’s all we’ve been – an irritant, a mild, mild irritant, and what this revelation to John is saying to us this morning is Christianity – genuine, Biblical, God-fearing Christianity is so much more than an itch that you scratch. It is the revelation of Almighty God. We cannot be scratched away, or covered up with an Elastoplast or whatever, because the whole world is racing towards an encounter with Christ Jesus, the son of man who is the Son of God. We are racing towards that encounter. 

Our scientists weren’t totally prepared for this pandemic. Our intelligence services couldn’t have forecasted any more than they forecast the fall of the Wall, the Berlin Wall, and the end of Communism. When God flicked a switch and Communism and Marxism were gone forever in Europe, our intelligence forces did not know. That Iran was going to fall back in 1979, they didn’t know that. So much they didn’t know, they poured money into them, they didn’t know that. Know that this is just the reality: men and women do not know, they do not realize that they are rushing towards an encounter with this same Jesus. 

And today we name him as the One who loves us as John has done earlier in this chapter. The One who loves us. And we know this Christmas time that it will not be in that poor lowly stable with the oxen standing by that we will see him, we will see him in heaven set at God’s right hand on high.  

Beloved, what America needs today are Christian people who actually believe in God.