By Mary Fairchild
The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry. THE VISION OF THE GLORIFIED SON: REVELATION 1:9-20; The Faithful Word #JMREV2.
Jesus Christ is the central figure in all of history. He is the Saviour of mankind. He is the single most unique person who has ever lived. He is the single most wondrous mystery that has ever existed. But what does the rest of the world know about Jesus Christ, that is in those parts of the world who have heard his name. Do you know that there are millions and millions of people who have never even heard of the name Jesus. They have no idea that he ever existed or walked on this earth. That’s why we are so committed to missions and to publishing the Gospel worldwide—that others might hear of His precious name.
Most of the world has heard of his birth and consider him in his childhood—cute, perhaps wondrous child… others perhaps have heard of the cross and view him as a man that was crucified, was murdered, some think that he was a martyr, others like the Jewish nation say that he was a heretic. Others may say he was a great teacher, others a prophet, but the vast majority of the world has absolutely no idea about his true being—that is the awesome and sovereign ruler of men’s souls—in fact all of the universe. That is the central truth and unveiling of this book called Revelation. It is the revelation of the glorified Son of God.
The apostle John saw Jesus Christ in all of his glory and he was told to write about it to send it to the churches. He describes for us this morning a person with a glory so brilliant that to stare at him would be to go blind. He is a voice so awesome, that it causes you to tremble and a majesty so supreme that John’s legs lose strength and he falls before him.
We begin by listening to the voice of the Son as he commissions John (vs. 9-11). Lets take a look at the circumstances of this calling to John to write this book. The apostle John is probably the last living apostle. Twenty-five years earlier the apostle Paul was martyred. But he doesn’t refer to himself as an apostle, he refers to himself as our brother and our companion in tribulation, kingdom, and patience.
The churches were under persecution at that time from the emperor Domitian. John, himself was on the island of Patmos because of his stand for Jesus Christ. So as he writes to them he says, I am your brother and I am your fellow sufferer, companion with you in this suffering we are going through. Acts 14:22 Paul says that it is through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God. The Christian life is not a life without suffering. 1 Peter 4:12 he says “Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as if some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation.” Verse 19, “Therefore those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” OUR REWARD AS CHRISTIANS IS YET FUTURE—it is there with the Lord Jesus in glory. We should not expect that would be popular in this world. One of the major reasons that the evangelical church today is weak in many ways and has a lot of problems besetting it is because we have been popular to a degree over the last twenty-five years. Whenever the world’s praise and the world’s acclamation begins to call us away from the stand for Jesus Christ we’re in trouble. If you’re going to stand for God’s Word and you’re going to stand for Jesus Christ you’re not going to be popular in this life accept among other Christians. We need to ask ourselves everyday “are we willing to identify with our Saviour?” .. as John did and all those before us have and be willing to accept the ridicule, the persecution, the unpopularity.
John says “I am on Patmos for that very reason…” Patmos was a small rocky island in the Aegean. It was about fifty miles offshore Ephesus. John was sent to Patmos as an exile because he would not acknowledge Domitian as the highest of kings—the he preached another king. We don’t know why Domitian didn’t just execute him, except for the fact that, though John was very old he was still made to labor in the mines. Perhaps in emperor Domitian’s mind it was slow agonizing execution of working in the mines. At the death of Domitian AD 96 John returned to Ephesis and we have no other account of him then except from extra biblical tradition and that he lived to be an old age.
In these bleak circumstances where he is shut off from his friends, he’s cut off from fellowship with other believers, in this time God gave him the greatest revelation of the coming of Christ in all of the Bible. When you suffer, when you are tested, when the world does seem to press in on us, when the
consequences of living in a sinful world fall upon us—it is in those moments that God can reveal to us his sufficiency. That we can learn of his care for us and his ability to rescue us. It’s in the suffering. It is also an extraordinary work of God that occurs here in a very inauspicious place. Sometimes we always look for the obvious, sometimes we look for the show, but it seems that God does the majority of his work in those seemingly insignificant occurrences in our life. It’s the little decisions that make a character. You should look for God’s work when you are studying the Scripture in your prayer closet—in the circumstances that don’t seem to be significant, God is probably working. That
was the case for John.
In verse 10, I believe that the Lord’s day is the first reference in the Bible, the only reference to the first day of the week, Sunday as the Lord’s day—the day He rose from the grave. Some commentators have said that they believe that what he is saying is that “I was in the day of the Lord” –that apocryphal day that the Old Testament talks about when Jesus Christ will come… set up the kingdom… what he was saying here was that in his vision he was carried forward to the day of the Lord. That’s possible, but I really believe that he is talking about the day of worship. What is really interesting about this verse is that statement “I was in the spirit.” That doesn’t just mean that he was feeling inspired, that he was emotionally worshipping the Lord that day, he may have been, it literally says “I became in the spirit” or “I entered a state beyond the natural,” “I was raised to the realm of the supernatural in my being and I heard a loud voice.” This is a vision from God.
In verse 11, we see the charge—the commission that that voice gave to him, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. These are seven historical churches that were in existence at that time—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. They’re all located in one province in what was called Asia—today it’s the western edge of Turkey. Why only seven? Why only these seven? There were hundreds of churches by then. There were major ones in Antioch, Corinth, and Rome.
Seven is a symbolical number and it comes up over and over in the book of Revelation and in the rest of the Scripture. It stands for “completion” or “perfection.” When we look at these churches in the next few weeks we are going to see that they were not chosen because of their popularity or achievements, but because they are representative of the church universal. There are seven types of churches that are addressed and those same types of churches exist today. There are seven spiritual characteristics that are going on in these churches and they exist today, in fact, they can exist in our own personal lives. Some have said that there are seven divisions in church history that are represented here from Pentecost to the Rapture. These churches were chosen because they represent the church entirety and you and our church here today.
John turned to see who was speaking to him and in verses 12-16 we see the vision of the Son—His countenance. He turned and he saw this awesome being. The first thing that he describes for us is His form.
HIS FORM (vs. 12, 13): He turned and he saw seven lamp stands. Seven golden lamp stands—these represent the seven churches (vs. 20; “the seven golden lamp stands are the seven churches”—Jesus interprets this for us and He does this throughout this book—if not here it’s usually in the Old Testament.). The symbolism is linked to the “one lamp stand that was in the tabernacle or the temple.” There was one lamp stand with seven candlesticks. Its purpose was to provide all of the light in the tabernacle for the service of the priests. It was to illumine all the articles of worship and to give them clarity—a picture of Jesus Christ as the light of the world for he is come to illumine mankind to the true things of God and to clarify their meaning. In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” He came into the world to clarify, to illumine the nature and the works of God. The sad thing that we are told is that mankind did not respond; chapter 3:19-20, “this is the judgment that light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John is saying that “those for whom the spirit works in their heart and draws them to Christ and they believe, they can come to the light because then their works are manifested—they are not theirs, they’re from God. But those who will not come to Him do so because they don’t want their deeds to be exposed and they have not thrown themselves on the grace of God.
The lampstand is fitting symbol for the church because while Jesus was in the world, He was the light of the world, but in Matthew 5 He said before he left the world that He told the disciples “now you are the light of the world.” Ephesians 1:23 says that the Church is the Body of Christ—we are the second
body. The second incarnation—and we manifest the light that Christ shines through us. In Exodus 27 it was told to the priests that that lampstand was to be lit in the evening and burned until the morning. That to is a great picture of this present dark age that we live in—spiritually dark, and we have been lit (the Church), to be a light to the world to clarify the things of God—to declare them until the daystar comes. Until the morning comes, which is Jesus Christ. We are the light of the world. If we don’t hold forth the Word of God and we don’t declare and clarify the things of God, there will be no light here. Make yourself transparent to others—don’t hide your light under a bushel because your are Christ’s and you have truth in Him.
Then John says “I saw these lampstands and then I saw one in the middle like the Son of man.” He means a “human being.” Yet He is much more glorious than any human being. “Son of man” was one of Jesus’ favorite titles. It was a messianic title, the Jews new that the Messiah was going to be called the “Son of man” among other things, but Jesus loved that title because it referred to His humanity. He is the Godman and He loved to call himself the Son of man.
Notice that Jesus Christ is standing in the midst of the lamp stands. Through the Spirit Jesus Christ is in the midst of His Church even today. We should never pray “Lord Jesus come into our midst” we should always pray “Lord Jesus make us aware of your presence.” He is here with us and He has always been with His Church and in His Church. This great encouragement to those seven churches was “I am near in your midst even though you are suffering.”
It also says that this person was clothed with a robe down to his feet and he had a breastplate of gold—this was the clothing of the high priest, the mediator between God and man, the one who offered the sacrifice on behalf of the people. The one who represented the people to God—Jesus Christ is our high priest. There is a wonderful statement in Hebrews about that. Hebrews 4:14 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.” One of the wonderful things about Jesus Christ is that we can see Him in the book of Revelation as this glorious person, and yet we can see Him in the book of Hebrews as this one who understands us. Who sympathizes with us. Who has endured what we endure, except without sin. He can understand us and give us the grace we need. The encouragement is to come near to this glorious person with confidence because He loves us and He wants to give us the grace that we need.
Next, John begins to describe this person’s features in vs. 14-15. He begins to notice the features. His hair is white as wool, as snow. This speaks of His wisdom and his eternality. In fact, for any Jew, who is familiar with the Old Testament, or any Christian, they would immediately think of Daniel Chapter 7. Daniel sees a vision of someone in heaven and this vision is of the Father on the throne and the Son of God comes to Him. Daniel says “I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His vesture was like white snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was a blaze with flames. Its wheels where burning fire and a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands were attending him and myriad upon myriad were standing before the courts and I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of man was coming and he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. We’re going to see that again in Revelation 4 and 5. Where the Lamb comes before the throne. Notice that the Father is described in the same way as the Son because they are equal in essence. God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ is the one that John sees and he sees the same thing that Daniel saw. Equality of Jesus and the Father and the Spirit.
Then he notices his eyes. He says they are like a flame of fire. Piercing, burning—speaks of His omniscience. Penetrating—knowledge of the churches and the souls of men. The judgment seat of Christ, when we stand before the Lord we’re not going to stand there because we’re worried about whether we are saved or not—He’s settled all that, but He’s going to examine our life and our works and those things that are not worthy will be burned up. The impression we get here is that it will be from His gaze. He will penetrate and understand us and see our works and that which is unworthy to be around for eternity he is going to burn up—His omniscience.
He mentions His feet that are exposed from under His robe and he says they are like burning bronze, like molten bronze in their glory and splendor. The altar at the tabernacle was made out of judgment. This is the one who judges.
Then he says His voice is like a sound of many waters. Perhaps like Niagara Falls—most likely when you are close to those falls you can’t hear anything else because of the tremendous roar…. its deafening. How ironic that today men and women don’t hear His voice in the world. That loud, deafening, majestic voice is not sounding right now, but God is speaking to men and women in a “still small voice” that comes through the Word of God that penetrates the heart. The world listens to all these other voices. The voices of worldliness, materialism, science, education, and the occult. Many shows on TV today are about different types of occult and demonic practices and the world’s just lapping it up. They don’t hear the voice of God. There will be a future day when those who do not accept Him will stand before Him and no one else will be talking—and that voice will ring out and be the judge.
In verse 16 the last thing that he mentions is “His fearsomeness.” John’s final description describes something of the supreme authority of this Being, this Son of God. In His right hand He held seven stars and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and His face was like the sun shinning in its strength. First he says something about his sovereignty—He is holding seven stars in His right hand. Verse 20 tells us that these stars are the angels of these churches. The word there is “angelos” and it literally means “messenger.” The angels of God are the messengers of God. These messengers are said to be indeed “spirit beings” they are angels of God and that would mean that just as angels are assigned to different nations and different people, that they are assigned to churches as protectors—that’s possible. Yet, when the Lord speaks to these angels he seems to include them often in circumstances where sin is involved and that would not be true of the holy angels—so there is another opinion. These messengers are either the pastors or the lead elders of these churches. They are the human leaders that are delivering the message to the Church from John. “Angelos” has been translated that way referring to human beings in a number of different places. John the Baptist in Mark 1:2—it was said of him that he was the “angelos” (the messenger) that came before the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 7:24, one time when the disciples of John the Baptist were sent by him to talk to Jesus, vs. 24 says, “When the MESSENGERS (angelos) of John had left he began to speak to the multitudes about John.” There are several other instances where it can be translated that way… So this is probably written to the human leaders of these churches. That is a source of comfort to know that, as leaders, you are in His right hand in his protection and sovereign control. In John 10:27, 28 he says all are in his hand and no one can snatch them from Him—we belong to Him.
Then he talks about his power. He is armed with a sword. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Revelation 19:15 says that the Word of God comes from his mouth and with it he will smite the nations and He will rule them with a rod of iron. THE SWORD IS THE WORLD OF GOD. All Jesus need do to slay someone is “speak it.” That’s all he did to create everything we see—He spoke it into existence and the Word of God is that powerful. In this great vision of judgment that’s coming the sword that this person holds is His own Word by which He will smite the nations.
Vs. 16—His face is shinning like the sun in its strength. We are warned all of our childhood not to look directly at the sun because if you do it will blind you. We cannot, in this body, see that kind of brightness and yet Jesus Christ’s glory is greater. When Paul saw Him on the Damascus Road and he said it was at noon and yet the light was so bright that that’s all he could see, it blinded him until the Lord healed him. In fact, it is so glorious it can light the whole earth. Revelation 21:23, 24 talked about a day when there won’t be any sun anymore—it will be a day when the new heavens and the new earth come and recreate things. Vs. 21 says the city where the people of God live have no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it for the glory of God has illumined it and its lamp is the lamb. And the nations shall walk by its light and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. We don’t know for sure about this city, whether it will be just off the earth, or whether it will be on the earth—but whatever the being is in it lights the earth. That is His glory. 1 John 3:2 says that one day we will be able to see him as he is when we are changed and then we will be fitted in order to gaze upon this kind of glory.
We tend to lose sight when we get into trouble don’t we…. When we get into problems and suffering we begin to redefine reality—all of a sudden God’s not big enough, God may not even feel like He’s there… He has absolutely no problem dealing with our problems. In fact, the very fact you are in that difficulty was permitted by God for His purposes or it would have never happened. He is able. Things are not always as they appear, but this glorious one, one day we are going to see and right now He is in us in His spirit and He is in our life.
The visitation of the Son—we’ve seen the voice and the vision and now we see the visitation of the Son. Not only does John see Jesus Christ, but the Lord comes to him and touches him and begins to communicate His vision to him. First we see the identification of the Lord in vs. 17 and 18. John’s response was that he lost all strength in his body—he just fell on his face in front of this personage. This is the same response we see throughout the Scriptures when a man or a woman sees the real glory of God, when they see something of the magnificence and the majesty of God they lose strength in their legs and they fall upon their face and tremble. It was true of Abraham in Genesis 17. It was true of Isaiah in his vision…. Of Daniel, of Peter…
So chapter 4 begins THE THINGS WHICH SHALL TAKE PLACE AFTER THESE THINGS (the future). Chapters 2 and 3 are THE THINGS THAT ARE (the Church, the Church age). God has given us His own outline that we would not misunderstand. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lamp stands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.
Turn now to John’s gospel—that which he wrote before John’s Revelation…. Listen to how the glorious Son of God entered into the realm of mankind and yet he is still a light: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God(the name for Jesus Christ—the Word). He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came into being that is come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for a witness that he might bear witness of the Light that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but came that he might bear witness of the Light. There was the true Light which coming into the world enlightens every man”(John 1:1-9).
“And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Have you responded to that light? If you have never trusted in Christ for your salvation—if you have never received Him personally then you as yet have not responded to the Light. The Light that God sent. Because he says in verse 12 “As many as received Him to them he gave the right to become the children of God even to those who believe in His name.” All that’s necessary for you to do for you to go to eternity “in judgment” is nothing—we’re all headed that way because of our sin, but God gives you the opportunity to respond to the Light. Jesus Christ came—he declared… he clarified the grace of God. He says that you can have a right relationship with God, “you can be assured of eternal life if you receive Him.” He’s the one who died for you and He is alive evermore. Everyone will meet Jesus Christ one day—everyone who has ever lived will meet him either as their Saviour or as their Judge. Reach out “in faith” and say “I take you Lord Jesus as my Saviour.”
Works Cited
- THE VISION OF THE GLORIFIED SON: REVELATION 1:9-20; The Faithful Word #JMREV2, *Pastor James Mooberry, “The Faithful Word: Two Decades of Expository Teaching Tapes.”
- Church Age