Revelation 1:8-20

The Lord is the beginning and the ending.  He is.  He was.  He is to come.  He is the Almighty.  

John is one of the disciples of Christ.  He was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, being punished and banished due to his spreading of the gospel.  While there, he had a vision in which he heard a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet telling him to write in a book what he was to see and send it to the seven churches in Asia:  Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

In John’s vision he saw seven golden candlesticks. (These candlesticks are the seven churches 1:20).  In the middle of these he saw Jesus wearing a long robe with a golden sash.  His head and his hair were white like wool and snow, and His eyes were like flames of fire.  His feet were as if bronzed by a furnace.  His voice was like the sound of many waters. – The sound of a river or an ocean ebbing and flowing is mesmerizing.  I imagine the voice of Jesus to be soothing and wonderful to hear like the sound of water. 

He had in His right hand seven stars.  (These are the angels of the seven churches 1:20.)  Out of His mouth was a sharp double-edged sword. 

When I was younger, I would envision this as an actual sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus – not a pretty picture.  Now I realize this means that His words have power – the power to save or the power to destroy.  

His face was like the sun. (Maybe He is the Light at the end of the tunnel that so many see in near-death experiences.)  The KJV says “His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength”.  The word countenance doesn’t just mean face.  It also means support and encouragement, and Jesus is the epitome of light, strength, support, and encouragement.  

When John saw Jesus he fell at His feet.  Jesus put His right hand upon John and told him to “Fear not”.   He reminded John that “I am the first and the last:  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore…I have the keys of hell and of death.”  He told him to write the things that he had seen, and “the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks”. (The stars are the angels and the candlesticks are the churches).

Basically, Jesus gave John a vision of the future.  This future consists of the End Times and the things that take place after.  We are yet to see that future, but we have signs that it is drawing near.  

Before we get into the letters to the seven churches, which are about their wrongs and rights, I believe that these words still apply to Christ’s churches today.  We have fallen in the ways that these churches have. They had a hard time getting it right too, even way back then, which goes to show that we are all still human, we live in a world dominated by Satan and his evil minions, and because of our faith in Jesus we are attacked by them on a daily basis.  Therefore, we will all fall at times, and therefore we NEED a savior. WE NEED JESUS!

I have lived for half a century, and I have never seen so many believe that we are close to those famous and horrible end times.  Near the end, God will speak loud and clear, and those who listen will know.  The world cannot continue in this state for long. If you haven’t made that commitment yet (the one that will save your everlasting soul), make haste, for the time is near.  Read John 3:16 and John 3:36.  Then go back to the beginning and join in with us.  

One more thing…my husband and I went camping last weekend.  People were getting baptized in the lake there on Sunday morning.  After a week of heartbreak and violence in the world, what an amazing way to start over.  God is still good, and there’s room for more in His kingdom.  Though we see evil broadcast everyday as if that were all that existed, while God is still in this world, there will be more good than evil. Stay safe and keep the faith!