Revelation 1:9-20

September 29, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 17:30 in the audio file.

Or, When John Saw Jesus Amidst the Lampstands

When we come to the Bible, we are always trying to get the point. Part of a teacher’s job is to show and tell what has been written; good preaching is making the original author’s intended meaning obvious. But for as long as there have been men coming to the Bible, there there have also been apocalyptic-sized exercises in missing the point.

The vision John sees in Revelation 1:9-20 is intimidating, not sinister, but too terrific. As we see what he wrote down about what he saw, we may have some questions, even some disagreements about what each part means. But if we see enough of what he saw, we really ought to have a similar response: falling as though dead at the Lord’s feet.

This is the Lord’s vision. I mean that in a couple ways. It is a vision that the Lord gave to John; it is Jesus’ loud voice talking to John (1:10), and Jesus commissions John twice to write down the vision (1:11, 19), and each of the individual letters to the churches are also part of this vision and are all from Jesus (2:1ff). But as the Lord reveals the vision, the Lord gives John a vision of Himself (1:12-16). It’s a look at Jesus in His omni-living, dazzling, eternal glory. John couldn’t handle it apart from Jesus’ own reassurance to John. And really, our eschatological discussions ought to be flavored a little more like dirt on our lips, picked up from our time spent humbled on the ground.

In this last half of chapter one we’re going to see when John saw Jesus standing amidst the lampstands. Jesus commissions John to write (verses 9-11), Jesus shows Himself to John (verses 12-16), and Jesus clarifies the commission again (verses 17-20).

The Commission to Write (verses 9-11)

John picks up his greeting, which he started in verse 4, but which he interrupted with a Trinitarian doxology. In verse 9 he names himself for the third time and explains a little more about how he came to write.

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 in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet

History tells us that John arrived to minister in Asia in the mid to late 60s. After more than 30 years living and shepherding among them, writing around AD 95, he doesn’t need to identify himself as an apostle. He calls himself their brother, and in particular a partner with them in three things: tribulation, kindgom, and endurance. John connects all three by using one preposition and one article (in Greek) to tie all of them together. The tribulation wasn’t the “great tribulation” he writes about in 7:14, nor was the kingdom the 1,000 years he writes about in chapter 20. He was, at the very moment of writing, part of Christ’s kingdom that included suffering and required endurance. John was in exile, others Christians were in prison, or slandered, or beaten, even killed. Endurance is the way of the kingdom for now. Endurance is the way of conquering, as we’ll see in the specific letters. This endurance is not a grumbling grit (see Philippians 2:14-15). Or as Peter exhorted,

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13)

John’s tribulation included banishment to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, which appears to be a legal punishment due to John preaching of God’s Word. Eusebius records that Domitian banished John to Patmos in the fourteenth year of his reign, AD 95, and John was allowed back to Ephesus when Domitian died, around AD 96 (Osborne).

It was during his exile that John had a vision: I was in[...]