The Unveiled Christ

One of the greatest needs in the church and in the life of every Christian today is for a fresh, new vision of Christ. We need to constantly see Jesus and keep our focus upon Him.

It reminds me of the song written in 1918, composed by Helen Lemmel, titled Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”

We’re going to do that for the next many weeks; we’re going to turn our eyes upon Jesus. I don’t know of any better way to turn our eyes on Jesus than by looking at Revelation 1. Look at the statement in the first verse of the first chapter of the book of Revelation. It says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” That is the theme of the book. It’s not the revelation of Saint John the Divine; it’s the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The word “Revelation,” in verse 1, is the word “apokalypsis” in the Greek. It’s where we get our word “apocalypse.” It literally means “to unveil”; not to conceal, but to unveil.

A lot of people say that the book of Revelation is concealed, it’s mysterious. There are a lot of symbols, types and analogies, they spiritualize the text and other things that you can’t understand in Revelation.

I believe that the book of Revelation is to be in the Bible; it’s part of the canon of Scripture. It is given by inspiration of God, as we’ll see. It is beneficial to the believer today; it is written in order to reveal Jesus. What could be more important than seeing Jesus? So this book unveils; it doesn’t conceal the glory, the splendor and the majesty of Christ, the head of the church.

I want to outline the chapter, and I’m going to introduce our subject of the seven churches. In this chapter, we are looking at the unveiled Christ. The first three verses are the salutation. In the first eight verses we have what I call “the prelude” to the vision. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God…”—referring to God the Father—“…gave Him…”—referring to God the Son—“…to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John…” This is a reference to the Apostle John, who wrote the Gospel of John; the first, second and third epistle of John; and now we see he is the human author of the book of Revelation.

In verse 2, it is John “…who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.” Note this statement that John “saw” these things. Then we have the first beatitude of the Revelation: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne…” This is a reference to the Holy Spirit. There aren’t seven Spirits; it is the sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned in Isaiah 11:2.

Continuing, “…and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”  

There are three key words that I want to point out in the first three verses. The first word is “Revelation,” in verse 1. The word means “unveiling” or “apocalypse.” It’s not a concealing but an unveiling. God has given us this book to unveil Jesus Christ. The message was given to the seven churches, telling them what the future holds, what is going to happen in the future.

Verse 1 says it came by the Father—“God gave…”—He gave it to His Son—“…Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John.” God the Father gave the message to God the Son, who gave it to an angel, or “aggelos” in the Greek, who gave it to John. Then John wrote it down. So this is the way the Revelation came.

We know that the Bible is given by inspiration of God. “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” the Bible says. So the Bible is God breathed; God superintended the human authors, so that the very words they wrote were the words of God. But it was not dictation. The book of Revelation stands unique in that it wasn’t like Paul sitting in prison writing Philippians, and God superintended his words, so it was inspired by God. But God actually lets John see and hear; John was transported in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and actually saw and heard these things while on the island of Patmos. Then John recorded these things and wrote them down. So this revelation came by way of God the Father, to God the Son, to an angel, who gave it to John, and John wrote the things down and recorded them.

My second word is record—“who bore witness to the word of God.” So John literally recorded what he saw, mentioned in verse 2, and then what he heard, as well. John is telling us what he recorded, in verse 2: “the word of God.” The book of Revelation is God’s Word.

So many people have pushed Revelation out of the Bible. There are churches that don’t read it, don’t preach it, don’t study it, don’t believe in it—they say it’s too confusing. Would God give us a book that we couldn’t understand? Do you think God’s in heaven saying, “This is really cool—they’ll never be able to figure it out! Isn’t this fun watching them freak out, because they can’t understand it?” No. He’s a God of light, a God who speaks, a God who reveals.

One of the reasons that I preach the Bible the way I do is because of a conviction I have about God; that God speaks and is light and that He reaches out and reveals. So we want to preach all of God’s Word.

And in verse 3 we see the first of seven beatitudes in Revelation. We will find all these groups of seven in Revelation, because it’s God’s number of completion. There are seven times that we find the word “blessed” in Revelation. It is like the Beatitudes of Matthew 5.

The third word is in verse 3: “reads.” “Blessed is he…”—or “she”—“…who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

Isn’t it interesting that the book has a built-in blessing. What do you have to do to get the built-in blessing? First, you “read” it—we’re reading it—secondly, you “hear” it—you’ve heard it—and thirdly, you “keep those things which are written in it.” So we’re going to read it, hear it and keep it. Then we’ll receive the blessing that God has for us.

So the three key words are “Revelation,” in verse 1; record or “bore witness,” in verse 2; and “reads,” in verse 3.

We have another word in verse 3, and that is “prophecy.” The book of Revelation is a prophetic book. It’s the only entire book of the New Testament that is prophetic. In the New Testament we have history; didactic, doctrinal epistles; and prophecy. There are prophetic sections in the Gospels and in the epistles, but Revelation is an entire book that is prophetic in nature.

So I don’t hold the preterit view that it all happened before 70 AD. I don’t hold the historical view that it is just a picture of the church’s struggle with evil during the history of the church. I don’t hold the spiritualizing view that it is just a picture of the battle between good and evil. Rather, I hold a futuristic view in interpreting Revelation literally, taking into consideration there are figures of speech, similes, metaphors and those kinds of things. I take a futuristic view that it is a prophecy, telling us what the future holds, as it unveils the glory and splendor of Jesus Christ.

Now notice in verse 4 the recipients of this book. “John, to the seven churches which are in Asia.” We will be looking at one church a week. There are seven, literal churches in Asia, which today is western Turkey. In John’s day, they were in Asia along the Mediterranean Sea. There were more than seven churches in this area, but these are the seven churches that God spoke to in chapters 3 and 4. So the recipients are these seven churches, but it also applies to us today.

Verse 4, “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” So we have another reference to God the Father, “who is and who was and who is to come.” Whenever you see that statement that is repeated throughout Revelation, it is conveying the idea that God is eternal. There has never been a time when God did not exist. God is eternal; He has always existed and will always exist. He is unchangeable or immutable; He is the eternal, self-existent God.

By the way, the greatest, scientific minds in the world are still perplexed as to the origin of life, as to the origin of matter and to the origin of time, space and energy. But all those questions are answered in the Bible, God’s Word. You can ask the youngest child in our Sunday school, and he knows more than the greatest scientists of our time.

“Where do we come from?”

“God.”

“Where did life come from?”

“God.”

All this came from God, the eternal one. Matter is not eternal. Time and space were created by God. Energy and light comes from God. Life comes from God. The human mind—not the brain—your will, your emotions, your feeling and your ability to reason—those things that animals don’t have, because you are created in the image of God—comes from God. Don’t believe the lies of the secular, humanist scientists of our world today who say there was just a big bang, and life started. They don’t know how, but they say it must have started, because we’re here. We’ve evolved from lower forms of life. Not so, because God created us in His image and likeness. So God says that He is the God “who is and who was and who is to come.”

In verse 8, He says He is “the Almighty” or El Shaddai. Verses 5-8 is our first focus on Jesus. We have the revealed. So we have the Revelation, the record, the read, the recipients and now we have the revealed.

I want to give you seven statements about Jesus. Number one, Jesus is the faithful witness. Verse 5 says, “and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.” In the Old Testament, there were three offices: there were the prophets, priests and the kings. All of them were anointed with oil, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus Christ came, He was our prophet, our priest and our King. “The faithful witness” means that He was a prophet; He reveals God the Father. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Jesus has revealed God to us. He is God. But this speaks of His office as a prophet; He faithfully proclaims and reveals who God is.

Secondly, in verse 5, Jesus is “the firstborn from the dead.” This speaks of His office as a priest. What does he mean by “firstborn from the dead”? The word “firstborn” has no connotation of chronology, but it does have connotation of priority. It doesn’t mean that He was created or came into existence. It means that He was the most important one. He was the most important one who ever rose from the dead.

Sometimes critics of the Resurrection of Jesus will point out, “Well, what’s the big deal that Jesus came back from the dead? Didn’t Lazarus come back from the dead? Didn’t the widow of Nain’s son come back from the dead? Didn’t Jairus’ daughter come back from the dead? Didn’t Elijah raise people from the dead? Why is Jesus’ Resurrection so important?” In all these cases, they came back from the dead to die again. They came back in mortal bodies to die again. Jesus, however, rose from the dead in an immortal body never, ever to die again. He was the first one to do this. That’s good news.

Jesus defeated death and the grave, and we’re in his train; we’re going to follow suit. He’s the firstfruits of those who have died. So one day, your actual, physical body will be resurrected from the grave. The Bible says, “To be absent from the body is to present with the Lord.” The moment you die, as a Christian, your soul goes to be with Jesus Christ. But you’re awaiting the resurrection, which happens at the rapture for your soul and spirit to be reunited with your body, and you’ll have an eternal body in heaven with Jesus. So “the firstborn of the dead” means He is the most important one to ever rise from the dead. Because He is our priest, He brings us to God.

Thirdly, in verse 5, Jesus is “the ruler over the kings of the earth.” So we have prophet, priest and now king. Jesus is “the King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Number four, in verse 5, Jesus “loved us,” but in the Greek it says that He “loves us.”

Number five, he has “washed us,” verse 5. How? “…from our sins in His own blood.” So in verse 5, we have His Crucifixion, His Resurrection and His forgiveness of our sins.

Then, number six in verse 6, He “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.”

Number seven, in verses 7-8, Jesus is coming again for us. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

It’s almost like at that point, in verse 8, that John couldn’t wait to get to the end of his book. He was so amped. He was excited to say that Jesus is coming again. That’s something that we should constantly remember: Jesus Christ is coming again.

I believe that verse 7 is a clear reference to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It is the grand climax of God’s redemptive history. God’s plan and purpose is that one day Christ will return, set up His kingdom on earth for 1,000 years. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and that will flow into the eternal state.

Zachariah 12:10 mentions, “Then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him.”

This is not the rapture; that’s the second event that happens prior to the Second Coming. The rapture involves the church being caught up “to meet the Lord in the air.” Then seven years later we have the Second Coming, when Jesus returns to earth with the church in power and great glory. We’ll see that in Revelation 19. So this is a reference of Jesus coming for us.

So verses 1-8 is the prelude. John has already been told to write this down and to give it to the seven churches, which are in Asia.

Now in verses 9-16, we see the portrait of the vision. So we saw the prelude to the vision in verses 1-8, and now we see the vision itself, beginning in verse 9. “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation…” This is not the great tribulation; this is just the troubles, trials and hardships that we encounter, as Christians, in this world. It comes from the world, from the flesh and from the devil. But the source of the great tribulation is God.

“…and 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.” John was preaching and testifying of Christ, so the Roman emperor Dalmatians banished John to a rocky island in the Aegean Sea, the penal colony of Patmos. I visited it twice. It’s amazing to walk on this island imagining John getting this revelation. John was 90 years old when he was banished to Patmos. He had preached faithfully his whole life, and now he was shipped over to this island, where God gives him this great revelation that we have in the Scriptures.

Verse 10 continues, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice…”—notice that he “heard…a loud voice”—“…as of a trumpet, saying, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,’ and, ‘What you see…”—so he heard and saw—“…write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia…”—now he names the churches—“…to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, 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….”

So John saw seven lampstands. They weren’t wax candles like we have today; they were actually little, clay lamps filled with olive oil and had a wick in them and had seven branches. We’ll see in verse 20 that this is a clear reference to the seven churches. And these lampstands are made of gold, because they’re valuable, and they give off light, because they are witnessing and testifying of Jesus Christ.

Verse 13, “…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 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.”

I want to go back over these descriptive pictures of Jesus in glory.

Here’s an interesting thought: in the Gospels we have the Jesus in His humiliation; He was tired, thirsty, weary, He wept and He was crucified. But in the book of Revelation we have the Jesus of glory and majesty. In the Gospels, we see Jesus as He was on earth; in Revelation, we see Jesus as He is right now in heaven.

Have you ever thought that in the Bible there is no description of how Jesus looked? How tall He was? How strong He was? How long His hair was? It’s interesting that we don’t have a physical description of Jesus. Yet everyone has pictures of Him! “Where did you get those?! Sweet! I wondered what He looked like.”

Now the Bible does mention—I thought this was kind of interesting—that He had a beard, because the Bible says that they “plucked out the beard.” So He had a beard. No doubt He had long hair, as the Jewish men of those days did. He was Jewish, so He had dark skin.

I remember when I got saved, I was a hippie. I had a full beard and long hair. People used to say, “When are you going to look like a Christian?”

I said, “I look more like Jesus than you do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen the pictures; I look like Jesus.”

But there is nowhere in the Bible that we are given a physical description of Jesus. The Bible actually says that when you looked at Jesus, there was nothing special about His looks. There was nothing to draw you to Him. He didn’t glow in the dark. He didn’t have a halo around His head. “He’s the Messiah; look, there’s a glow around His head!” No. He was just like others; He was in a body of humiliation.

But now we see Him in His glory, as He exists right now. How marvelous!

Go back over these verses with me. In verse 14, we see “His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow.” There are also seven characteristics in Revelation about Jesus. These characteristics are described as “like unto” or “as.” Whenever you have these words in Revelation, it is an indication that the descriptions are similes; it is a word used to convey something that is similar, something you can’t put into words.

“His head and hair were white like wool,” I believe, conveys His wisdom, His purity or holiness and especially His eternal state. In Daniel 7:9, Jesus is called “the Ancient of Days.” In John 1:1, it says, “In the beginning was the Word”; He is the eternal God.

Then you have a description of His eyes, in verse 14. “…His eyes like a flame of fire.” No doubt this conveys His omniscience; He knows all things and His eyes burn through and know the heart of man.

Do you know that Jesus knows what you’re thinking right now? Jesus knows where you go, what you do; He sees everything. The Bible says, “All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” You can’t fool God. His eyes are “like a flame of fire” as He comes back in glory.

Then we have a description of His feet, in verse 15. “His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace.” He didn’t literally have brazen feet, but they were so glorious that they were like brass. In the Bible, brass is the metal of judgment. In the Old Testament tabernacle, they had an altar of brass, which was where the animals were sacrificed. So it represents the Cross and the judgment, and He is coming back to judge the earth.

Then we have His voice, verse 15: “His voice as the sound of many waters.” How interesting. I’ve never been to Niagara Falls. I hope someday I can visit it. But I understand that when you stand near Niagara Falls, it is so loud that it drowns out every other sound. I think that is a great picture of the voice of the Lord. When Jesus comes, His voice will be so powerful that it speaks of His authority and His omnipotence—His power. It drowns out the voice of everyone else.

We’re hearing so many voices in the world today. It would be great if we could only hear the voice of Jesus. The voice of Jesus will be so prominent and prevalent that it will drown out every other voice. Psalm 29:4 says, “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” I like that.

And notice His right hand, verse 16. “He had in His right hand seven stars.” These seven stars represent angels—the word is “aggelos”—who are the seven messengers of the church, or they oversee and watch over the churches. Sometimes that word is used for an actual person; some feel it could be a reference to the pastors of those churches.

I like that view, for obvious reasons. I like to think I’m in His hands. I was thinking about this last night. “Lord, please let this be about the pastors. I want to be in Your hands.” That aside, I think it is clear from the rest of the Scripture that I am in His hands, and you are in His hands, because we know that He has the whole world in His hands.

He is holding “in His right hand,” so He is moving in the midst of the churches. He is holding these aggelos in His hands. Either way, it’s kind of a cool thought to think that God has assigned an angel to Revival Christian Fellowship. The Bible indicates that angels watch us as we gather, angels watch us as we sing, angels watch us when we pray and angels listen in when we preach. There are angels in this room right now observing how we worship God. So He holds angels in His right hand.

Then in verse 16, “Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.” We know that in the Bible, the sword is many times likened unto the Word of God. In Revelation 19, when John again describes the Second Coming of Christ, he said, “Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations.” In Hebrews 4:12, it says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” So it speaks of the power of His Word. In Ephesians 6:17, we are to “take the…sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

The last reference to Jesus is His countenance, in verse 16. “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” No doubt His countenance is speaking of the manifest glory of God. It’s interesting that in Matthew 24, when Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse, described His Second Coming, He said, “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

So we see His head and His hair, we see His eyes and His feet, we hear His voice, we see in His right hand, we see His mouth and we see “His countenance was like the sun.”

Years ago there was an article in the Los Angeles Times that said, “Messiah has come. He’s living in London in an apartment.” I don’t think so. Don’t believe it. When Jesus comes “every eye will see Him.” You won’t have to go on TV and say, “By the way, that was Jesus who came yesterday.” Everyone will know when He comes; He will be manifested to the world. And we will come back with Him in power and in great glory.

Now I want to remind you that there was an event in the life of the Apostles with Jesus called the Transfiguration, when Peter, James and John—the same John of the Revelation, and James being his brother; they were sons of Zebedee called the “sons of thunder”—went with Jesus up on this high mountain. We don’t know which mountain it was. Jesus was transfigured before them. Jesus had told them, “There are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” Then a few days later, He took them up on this high mountain, pulled back the veil of His humanity and let His full deity shine forth. How marvelous was that! They woke up from a nap and saw Jesus in His glory, brighter than the sun! It’s the picture of the Second Coming of Christ. So what we have in our text is a description that is consistent with the fact that they saw His glory.

At the end of John’s Gospel, when Jesus was telling Peter that when you were young, you went wherever you wanted to go, but when you’re old, people will lead you where you don’t want to go, He was speaking of the way Peter would die. Then Peter turned to John and asked Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?” Jesus then said to Peter, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

Could Jesus be alluding to the fact that on the island of Patmos John would see the resurrected Jesus Christ, and he would see the coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory? John got to see it on the mount of Transfiguration, and then he got to see it a second time as he was with Him on the island of Patmos. That’s a fascinating thought.

So John says in verse 10, “I heard”; in verse 12, “I saw”; again in verse 17, “I saw” and he adds “I fell.” I like that. It would be great if we all heard, saw and fell down to worship Him.

Now in the next section, verses 17-20, John moves to the purpose of the vision. John said, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me.” Jesus Christ, the glorified, risen Savior, laid His hand on John, the aged apostle on the island of Patmos. Then Jesus begins to speak, “…saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.’” Jesus would never have said that to John if he hadn’t been afraid. So if the great apostle John was afraid, it’s okay for us to be afraid. But God lays His hand on us and tells us, “Do not be afraid.” And He tells us, “I am the First and the Last.” Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He is eternal, the beginning and the end.

Verse 18, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.” Now you have three things in verse 18: His life, His death and His Resurrection. He said, “I am He who lives”—He was living right then; He “was dead”—He was crucified; and “I am alive forevermore”—that’s His Resurrection.

“And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Who holds the keys of hell and death? Jesus Christ. He is in control. You can trust Him.

So in verses 17-18, He comforts John. Now in verse 19, He instructs him. “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars…”—many times when there is a simile or metaphor, there is a an explanation in the book itself—“…which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches…”—it’s very clear—“…and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.”

So He comforts John by saying, “Don’t be afraid,” and He gives him those five reasons: He is “the First and the Last”; He is alive; He “was dead”; but now He is “alive forevermore”; and He has “the keys of Hades and of Death.”

Then He commands John to do three crucial things, verse 19. This is the key to the book of Revelation and is the outline of the book: “Write the things which you have seen….” This is Revelation 1. He had just seen the vision of Christ on the island of Patmos. Secondly, “…and the things which are….” This will be about the seven churches, in chapters 2-3. “…and the things which will take place after this.” That is Revelation 4-21. This is how the book of Revelation is laid out.

So you might say that technically Revelation is not future until you get to chapter 4. It starts with the same Greek phrase “meta touta,” which means “after these things.” I believe that although it’s not a direct reference to the rapture, positionally the rapture of the church happens in Revelation 4. The church is on earth in chapters 2-3, and the church is in heaven in chapters 4-5. Never again is the church mentioned as being on earth to go through the tribulation. Then the tribulation starts in chapter 6.

There are a lot of Christians right now who think that we are in the tribulation. No; we’re not in the tribulation. The Bible says, “For God did not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I believe that the rapture will happen before the tribulation.

The tribulation starts not with the rapture but with the Antichrist making a covenant with Israel for seven years; that’s what starts the last seven years of man’s history on earth. I don’t think the church will be here to see that. I’m not looking for the Antichrist; I’m looking for Jesus Christ. Are you? That’s who I’m looking for. And all throughout Scripture, that’s what it tells us to constantly do: to be looking for Him.

So here’s the threefold division, in verse 19, of the book of Revelation: “which you have seen,” chapter 1; “things which are,” chapters 2-3; and “things which will take place after this,” chapters 4-21.

Now there are three things that I want to say in summary. Number one, Christ still stands at the center of His church. We saw it in verse 12: He’s in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.
I believe in the church. I believe that the church is what God is doing in the world today. I believe that the church is important and precious to God; He purchased it with His own blood. Jesus Christ is in our midst when we gather corporately. There’s something special about the presence of the Lord, and we want to hear His voice. Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

Secondly, Christ still speaks to His church—through, by and in His Word. We will see that in Revelation 2-3. Seven times it says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” How marvelous to hear that God still speaks to the churches today.

Thirdly, Christians still need to see Christ in His power and glory. We need to hear Him, verse 10, we need to see Him, verse 12, and we need to fall on our faces, verse 17, and worship Him, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.