Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Vision of the Son of Man

9 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. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one.

I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

This week we begin looking at John’s vision in verses 9-20, his vision of one like a son of man, who is the glorified second person of the Trinity.

Or as he’s described in verses 17-18, “the first and the last, the living one” and the one who died, but who is alive forevermore, and who has the “keys of Death and Hades” - this, of course, is Jesus.

These verses also serve, like the prophets before him, as God’s commission for him to deliver this vision to the churches.

But first, John addresses his audience, he addresses seven particular churches in Asia Minor, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

And he addresses them there in verses 9-11 by writing,

9 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. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

In verse 9 he addresses them as their “brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.”

In other words, he shares in their tribulation, he’s their fellow brother in the kingdom of God, and that he too is patiently enduring the same tribulation.

All three of these categories, tribulation, the kingdom, and patient endurance were highly applicable to the church then and are to the church now.

Tribulation

The Apostles were not kept from the tribulation that the churches faced, but instead they were fellow participants in it.

In fact, the Apostles set for the church an example to follow.

The Apostle Paul wrote letters to the churches while he was in prison for preaching the Gospel, while he was in chains.

There in verse 9 we get the impression that the Apostle John may have been exiled by the Roman Empire to the Island of Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, and from there he wrote his Apocalypse to the seven churches in Asia Minor to give them hope, to call them to repentance, and to admonish them to endure this tribulation.

Yet this example didn’t begin with Apostles, the Apostles followed the example of Jesus, and they had heeded his words.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry he had prepared his disciples for persecution.

This is clear throughout the Gospels, and particularly in Matthew chapter 10, when Jesus sent out his disciples to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

And in verses 16-25 he warned them of the resistance they would face along the way.

This is what he told them,

Persecution Will Come

16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Jesus also told his disciples in John 15:18-20, the night before he was betrayed,

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

then in John 16:33, just a few verses later,

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

And throughout the Book of Acts we see this play out, for example, in Acts 14:12 after the Apostle Paul had been stoned, we’re told that he travelled to the city of Derbe, and,

21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

In other words, persecution and tribulation is normative for the church.

The Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:12-13,

So, when John writes to these seven churches this is the backdrop of teaching and experience from which he’s assuming, and so he comforts them by reminding them that he too is their brother and partner in the tribulation.

The Great Tribulation

Now, of course, what they’re experiencing at this point isn’t just any tribulation common to Christianity, but they’re experiencing the tribulation that Jesus had described to his disciples in his Olivet Discourse, what we often refer to as the great tribulation, where Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 24:9,

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The church in John’s day had begun to experience the birth pangs of this great tribulation, therefore when John writes to them, he comforts them by reminding them that he too is their brother and partner in it.

The kingdom

Moreover, he also reminds them that he is their brother and partner in the kingdom.

Now, I think we can miss the significance of this statement because we often lack a robust view of the kingdom, it’s nature, it’s coming, and its relationship to us today.

Therefore, I want to take a minute to described the implications of what John is saying when he reminds the churches that he is their brother and partner in the kingdom.

The Book of Daniel

Turn with me to the Book of Daniel, chapter 7. Now we’ve referred to this chapter many times over the last couple of years, while we were in Matthew’s Gospel and again as we’ve surveyed John’s Apocalypse, but I want to look at some passages that we haven’t yet considered.

As I mentioned in our survey, John’s Apocalypse could be described as part two of the Book of Daniel.

And what I mean is that the Book of Daniel, particularly as it relates to its prophecies, was “a prophecy given to the Jews to prove the time of the coming Messiah.”

(Daniel 7 - Who are the “ten kings”, Jay Rogers) In other words, its prophecies describe the events leading up to the first coming of Christ, and where Daniel leaves off John picks up in the timeline of events.

The Book of Daniel describes four kingdoms, four kingdoms that will precede the coming of Israel’s Messiah.

At one point these kingdoms are described as four beasts, which would later be known as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the fourth beast, as Rome.

Then later, in John’s Apocalypse, the imagery of a beast is picked up again and identified with Rome and it’s emperor, Nero Caesar.

Now, Daniel also describes a fifth kingdom that will bring these other four kingdoms to an end, a kingdom established by God himself.

Listen to what Daniel says in Daniel 2:44-45, when he interprets a dream given to the king of Babylon,

44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.

It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, 45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand,

The point here is that God is describing a future time when the kingdom of heaven will be established upon the earth, a kingdom cut from a mountain by no human hand, a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and a kingdom that will break in pieces these four other kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

And this kingdom is the same kingdom that Jesus came heralding.

We read texts like Matthew 4:23 all throughout the Gospels,

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

The kingdom came at Jesus’ first advent.

And while we acknowledge that we’re still awaiting the consummation of that kingdom, we also recognize that the kingdom of God had certainly come in a very real and tangible sense.

Hebrews 12:28 says,

let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,

It’s a kingdom that we have received, a kingdom consisting of real saints.

In Luke 17:20 Jesus described it like this,

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Kingdom given to the saints of the Most High

Now, in light of the kingdom of God coming at the first advent of Christ, follow along with me here in Daniel chapter 7, starting in verse 13.

Now, for the sake of time, we’re jumping into the middle of a vision given to the prophet Daniel, and there’s more going on here than we’re going to cover, but I want you to notice some of the striking parallels between Daniel and Revelation.

What Daniel describes in this particular vision portrays the same events described in John’s Apocalypse, we’ll see a clash of kingdoms, and we’ll see the kingdom of heaven supplant the fourth beast, or kingdom, which is descriptive of the Roman Empire.

We read,

13 “I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days