Revelation – Seeing Jesus – 2

Revelation 1:9-20

9 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. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 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 Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 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. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

17 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, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 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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What do you think the perfect life is? What would it be for you? (Most people would say no hardship or having everything you want) The perfect life is a life that follows Jesus. How that is played out is often in complete contradiction to the ways of the world and the American Dream. And that thought has crept into the church. The best life is the one that follows Jesus. But look what Jesus himself says about following Him:

Luke 9:23 – If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Following Jesus involves suffering and obedience. (9-11)

The apostle John, who is suffering, is writing to specific churches, who are suffering. Why is John suffering? He did nothing wrong. He is suffering simply for following Jesus. He is in his nineties and he is exiled on an island for criminals. John MacArthur tells us,

“According to the Roman historian Tacitus, exile to such islands was a common form of punishment in the first century. At about the same time that John was banished to Patmos, Emperor Domitian exiled his own niece, Flavia Domitilla, to another island. Unlike Flavia Domatilla, whose banishment was politically motivated, John was probably sent to Patmos as a criminal (as a Christian, he was a member of an illegal religious sect). If so, the conditions under which he lived would have been harsh. Exhausting labor under the watchful eye (and ready whip) of a Roman overseer, insufficient food and clothing, and having to sleep on the bare ground would have taken their toll on a ninety-year-old man. It was on the bleak, barren island, under those brutal conditions, that John received the most extensive revelation of the future ever given.”[1]

John is saying he is a brother and partner in tribulation. He has joined them and is with them amidst their hardship. And they can all make their way through it because Jesus is with them.

Your best life is not now. (9)

I love this about Revelation. It shows me the future. It shows me the destruction of everything that has destroyed me so many times. The destruction of worldly, enticing, sinful culture…the destruction of Satan…the destruction of sin…and ultimately the destruction