When Are We Now? The first of three studies of The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Paige Ramsey
“The Glorious Christ” – Lesson 3: The Person of the Revelation
Revelation 1:9-18
– I, John, both your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last,” and “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, toThyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars: out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid his right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death…”
"I, John, both your brother and companion in tribulation,
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”
John does not say “John, the apostle.” He does not put himself in a priority position above others or exalt himself or usurp any authority – he claims simply to be our brother – our equal, our companion, one who shares a closeness.
How does this make you feel? _______________________________________________________________
Baptist ministers chose to not be referred to by a title. The title, they felt, made their parishioners feel “below” them in status, as if they were not as worthy. They did not want the title of Reverend or Father or any other title. They proclaimed we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. The term brother is used not only for Baptist pastors but also for other men in the church – there is no distinction of favorable preference.
“on the island… called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ”
We covered this in the last lesson. Patmos is an island of about ten miles long and five miles across. I’ve read differing opinions on whether the island was populated with other prisoners or not. Most tend to believe John was isolated there or with only a few others, though later it became a common place to exile many prisoners. He was there for preaching the Word of God. He stood firm on his convictions, insisting that repentance of sin and believing in Jesus is the only way to heaven, and that without Christ, there is no hope. Sadly, we are seeing a day in this wonderful country we live in where we cannot tell others about Christ without consequences. Most people do not have the strength that John exhibited. Most people simply comply and do not dare to speak about the Lord. We are seeing fewer and fewer young people coming to know the Lord as a result.
Are you ever hesitant to share your faith?________ Do you want to have the strength to share your faith no
matter the consequence? ___________________
“in the Spirit on the Lord's Day”
“The Lord’s Day” – not the “Day of the Lord”
Scripture refers to a future day of judgment as the “Day of the Lord”
1 Corinthians 5:5
– To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
2 Peter 3:10
– But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
“The Lord’s Day” is Sunday – the disciples forsook the worship on the Sabbath and began to worship on Sunday to celebrate the resurrection. They took up their collection on Sunday. They sang their hymns and songs of praise on Sunday. Sunday is not the Sabbath. The Sabbath has always ever been the seventh day of the week – Saturday. However, as Christian Gentiles were not expected to uphold the Law of the Jews (which Jesus liberated the Jews from), they never observed the Sabbath as the Jews did. Instead, they observed Sunday as “The Lord’s Day” and set that day apart to draw close to the Lord.
Those who would enjoy communion with God on the Lord's Day must endeavor to abstract their thoughts and affections from flesh and fleshly things, and be wholly taken up with things of a spiritual nature.
Do you set apart a day each week to honor the Lord? ______ Do you feel this is important? ______ Why or why not?
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“heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet”
The Lord gave John notice that something unusual was about to take place with the sound of a trumpet – announcing the arrival of the Lord Himself. The trumpet sound is interesting. The Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of the Trumpets.
God has always had a heart to warn people before He executes His judgment. God warned the people
before the Flood, and He warned Niniveh before it was ruined. The Feast of Trumpets reflects God’s
desire to summon His people to repentance so that He can vindicate them on the day of His judgment. …
The blowing of the trumpets was understood to be a call to repent and prepare oneself to stand trial
before God who would execute His judgment ten days later on the Day of Atonment. ...
There is merit to the concept of a new year celebration that calls believers to take an annual spiritual
inventory of their lives and repent of cherished sins, knowing that God will temper His judgment with
mercy. We shall see that this is a fundamental theme of the Feast of the Trumpets, an annual trumpet-
call to repentance during the ten awesome days of judgment, knowing, however, that God will
remember favorably His people and vindicate them.
Other times where the Scripture mentions trumpets include:
Hosea 8:1
– Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant, and rebelled against My law.
Joel 2:1
– Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand.
Matthew 24:31
– And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.
1 Corinthians 15:52
– …in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
“the seven churches which are in Asia; to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea”
The aspects the Lord mentions about these churches remarkably parallel Church history from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture, and therefore, many Bible scholars today believe these particular churches were selected to represent the Church age, which at that time was futuristic. If so, then it could not have been understood until the time drew close for the Lord to come, giving us a clue that the time is near for the Lord to come.
“seven golden lampstands”
John saw a representation of the church as seven golden candlesticks or lampstands. The church is represented as candlesticks and not candles – lampstands and not lamps – because the church holds up the Light – the Lord Jesus Christ, for all to see. The church is not the Light. Jesus is the Light. The church is the stand that allows the Light to shine.
"in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man” (See Dan. 10:6 for a comparative vision)
Jesus is a man. It is hard to remember this sometimes. We are usually defending the fact that Jesus is God Almighty; we tend to put it to the back of our minds that Jesus is a man – human, just like you and me. A man – a physical man sits at the right hand of the Father pleading our case when Satan comes to accuse us. Jesus is a man who understands our human ways, our human tendencies, our human desires.
Jesus is standing in the midst – right in the middle of the churches. He is close to them – none of His churches is out of His reach. Churches today are being persecuted from every side, and even from within… but the Lord is right there, giving us the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, gentleness and goodness, the faith, the meekness, and self-control we need to get through the battles.
When you think of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, do you picture a human man? _______ How does it make you feel to know you have a human to turn to? _______________________________________
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How does it make you feel to know you have a human who is defending you against Satan? ____
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"clothed with a garment down to the feet”
A garment down to the foot signifies “…a princely and priestly robe, denoting righteousness and honour”
List the ways you honor the Lord Jesus Christ in your life:
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“girded about the chest with a golden band”
gold = righteousness; band – or girdle = service
Our Lord is still in service to His people! He is still imputing His righteousness upon us! This is our eternal salvation – Jesus is working for our security! It is He who keeps us saved – He does what we cannot do.
Write to the Lord here and tell Him how you feel about His service to you:
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“His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow”
white = purity, holiness; white hair = wisdom – depicts ancientness and honor
White as wool denotes maturity; snow implies clean, fresh, new
Our Lord is eternally fresh with youthful vigor, with an ancient wisdom that is unfathomable to us. The Bible refers to us as “God’s children.” Even though we grow up in this world and are considered adults, we remain as children for our entire, short existence here. It is good for us to remember this. We will never arrive at a place of even puberty in comparison, and though we continually “strive toward the mark of the high calling of God” (to be conformed to His likeness), we can never be puffed up about our little bit of learning and understanding in this lifetime.
“His eyes were as a flame of fire”
Fire denotes passion and fervor.
Psalm 34:15
– The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
Fire consumes.
Proverbs 15:3
– The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Fire purifies.
Proverbs 22:12
– The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge…
I’ve seen some piercing eyes in my lifetime. My dad had piercing eyes. It was hard to lie to my dad. I knew that he knew when I was lying, and I couldn’t look at him in the eyes when I lied. My mother, though, had understanding eyes. It was much easier to lie to my mother. In her eyes, though she wanted the truth and was stern, I could see she didn’t want to believe I would lie, which made it easier as an unsaved child. Once I became a Christian and had to deal with my lying problem, I couldn’t believe how I could lie as a child to those trusting eyes, but I did.
Can you imagine Jesus’ eyes? Jesus could see the truth in the person He observed. This is a quote from a report kept in the Library of Congress said to have come from Pilate and sent to Tiberius Caesar concerning Jesus:
When the Nazarene made His appearance I was having my morning walk and as I faced Him my feet
seemed fastened with an iron hand to the marble pavement and I trembled in every limb as a guilty
culprit, though he was calm.
How do you imagine it would be to stand in the presence of Jesus and look into His eyes?
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“And His feet were like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace”
Brass signifies judgment.
The brass serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness depicts the judgment of sin that came about on Mount Calvary.
His feet were so bright that they seemed to be like a beautiful metal glowing intensely in the midst of a
furnace. Anyone who has looked upon the dazzling and almost insupportable brilliancy of metal in a
furnace can form an idea of the image here presented.
The judgment of the Lord is definitely refined. It is just and pure – like metal refined by fire. No one will be able to say the judgments that God will give are too harsh, are partial, are false, or are deceitful in any way. God’s judgments are true.
"His voice as the sound of many waters”
Authority and Majesty – see Ezekiel 1:24; 43:2
The description here implies not necessarily loud – like the first sound of His voice that reached John’s ears of a trumpet. The voice did not continue blaring as to blast the eardrum, but more ambient and resonating – as though the sound encompassed him so that it was all that could be heard.
When God speaks to you – don’t misunderstand this – it will be all that you can hear.
John 10:24–28
– Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand…”
Have you heard God’s voice? ____________________________________________________
“He had in His right hand seven stars” – see Isaiah 62:3
The right hand signifies His dearest, most protected place – He highly values them, and uses them as instruments to do His will.
Verse 20 says the stars are the angels of the churches. The word angel simply means messenger. These would not be God’s messengers, whom we refer to as angels, because God is giving John a revelation of His Son Jesus, to write down and deliver to these seven churches and angels. If God wanted to give His own angels a message, He would not have used John to do it, He would have given it personally. These are human messengers of the churches. The pastors, or elders, or bishops, or teachers (they were called by several titles) – the one delivering God’s Word to the people. The Lord holds the messengers of His Word in His nail-pierced right hand of protection. He takes care of His churches’ pastors. They are dear to Him.
These are led and held in Christ's right hand; which shows that they are dear unto him, and highly
valued by Him; that they are His, in His possession, at His dispose, whom He uses as His instruments to
do his work; and whom He upholds and sustains, that they shall not sink under their burdens;
and whom He preserves from failing, and so holds them that they shall stand fast in the faith, and not
be carried away with the error of the wicked.
1 Timothy 5:17-20
– Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.
Ministers are worthy of double honor. There was a time when people had a high respect for the minister of God’s Word. That isn’t the case today. People in general like to think they honor the pastor, but then it seems they are eager to hear about the faults and sins of a minister, and almost always tend to condemn them rather than forgive. This verse specifically speaks of money – payment for services rendered. Ministers should be well paid.
Be careful and prayerful before you accuse a minister. What you may see may not be the full truth – certainly what you hear may not be the full truth. Be slow to come to a conclusion against a man of God. If God’s man is guilty, God will deal with it. And if His servant is not willing to correct his sin, God will bring it to light. Until there are two or three witnesses who accuse a minister, do not act upon it and do not spread it.
Sadly, sometimes, a man of God is found guilty of a sinful act, or a sin of the spirit – like bitterness – that prevents him from performing his duties properly in the church. The church must deal with it carefully. It should be handled with sensitivity and kept quiet as possible. Spreading bad light concerning a minister harms the gospel and the entire work of the Lord, and those who partake in it must answer to the Lord. The last statement of that verse indicates that those who speak against a minister without proper cause or attitude should be rebuked openly so others will be careful not to follow that example. It could also mean that one posing as a man of God, when his sin is exposed, should be rebuked publically, but again – we must be extremely cautious here to be sure of truth.
“out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword”
Hebrews 4:12
– For the Word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Ephesians 6:17b
– …the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.
The Word of God comes out of the mouth of Jesus! If there was ever any question as to whether or not Jesus is God Almighty – this should settle the matter.
Have you ever experienced the sharp sword of God’s Word as it carved away at your heart? Describe your experience below:
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“His countenance was as the sun shining in its strength”
Jesus really IS the Light!!
2 Corinthians 4:6
– For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 17:2
– And [Jesus] was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
“when I saw him, I fell at His feet as dead”
When John looked at the holy Deity, he saw his own unworthiness and could no longer stand, breathe, or move. He was paralyzed by Majesty!
Ezekiel 44:4b
– the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell on my face.
The closer you draw to the Lord, the more you see your own sin, your shame, and your insignificance. God is complete holiness. He is righteous and glorious. We do not compare. What we consider righteous is like filthy rags compared to the righteousness of God Almighty! Do not be deceived – you are not even close to being righteous! If you had a glimpse of His glory, you would see your inadequacy and fall down as dead also.
Have you “seen” the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ? ___________________________
How did it make you feel? __________________________________________________
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Short Outline of the Book of The Revelation:
Chapter 1 The Glorified Christ
Chapters 2 & 3 The Church on this Earth
Chapters 4 & 5 The Church in Heaven – John is caught up (raptured) into heaven – the church is
no longer referred to in the Revelation
Chapters 6–18 The Seven-Year Great Tribulation Period
Chapter 19 The Second Coming of Christ – The Revelation
Chapter 20 The Reign of Christ and The Judgment of the Dead
Chapters 21 & 22 Living in the New Heaven, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem
Next week we will be looking closer at the seven churches in Asia minor. Make every effort to be
here for that lesson as we will be going over church history from Pentecost to the Rapture.
Endnotes: