The Exalted Son | Revelation 1:9-20

Goerge Washington, when he presided over the constitutional convention, when he spoke up, people listened and he played a significant role in settling debates about the makeup of congress.

There are individuals that when they speak, you listen.

I can think of mentors I’ve had over the years, men I considered to be wise and full of the Scriptures. When they gave me advice, I took it seriously, because they had earned that level of rapport with me.

I hope you have individuals in your life that you think of in this way. Be it spiritual leaders, your parents, your teachers, or other trusted individuals. We all need people who can command our attention.

As we continue our journey into the book of Revelation, we are going to encounter a personage who speaks, and in so doing He ought to command your attention. The description of Jesus Christ in our text today should be awe-inspiring for us, but more than that they are the kind of descriptions that are intended to make you sit up straight. If you have never considered this aspect of who Jesus Christ is, and who He has revealed Himself to be in this text, I pray that today’s text should exalts him in your hearts, minds, and affections as we gaze upon the exalted Son.

Revelation 1:9–20 LSB

I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the witness of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, saying, “Write in a scroll what you see, 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.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and having in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword which comes out of His mouth, and His face was like the sun shining in its power. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not fear; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. “As for the mystery of the seven stars which 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.

There is a sense in which one could say that this was a second introduction to the book of Revelation. John has already introduced himself in vs 1, and 4. Now here in vs 9 and following he introduces the vision the brought about this letter.

It is in this first section that we learn why John has written: because he was commissioned to write. He was given a mandate. Write!

An Entrusted Mandate - vs. 9-11

Notice a few things about what John says about himself. He calls himself a brother. Rather than identify himself as the half-brother of Christ and claim whatever prestige someone might think came with that title, he chose to identify himself with his fellow Christian brothers and sister.

Then he says he is a fellow-partaker. He continues to identify himself with them. They have partaken of these things and he has as well. What are they?

tribulation. kingdom. perseverance.

grammatically these three items are closely linked together

Those in Christ who anticipate the coming kingdom will face trial and tribulation, but they will have persevered through it all.

There is tribulation in Christ.

But we receive the kingdom through Christ

because we persevere by the grace of God in Christ.

It calls to mind Acts 14:22 as Paul reminded the early and suffering church “Through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God.”

Some people trust Christ because they think it will make life easier.

Jesus said for many it will be harder.

In one sense it will be easier because we won’t be living it alone. But we become targets for the evil one, and we face the potential of hardship simply because of our faith in Christ.

John knew this as well as anyone as we will see.

But it’s worth it. Brothers and sisters it is so worth it! And in a way, these three words sum up what might be the main central thrust of the book of Revelation. Yes, there is triublation, but those who trust in Christ receive the kingdom...IF you persevere. We must not think that that perseverance is merely our own work, it is the Father who keeps us, the Son who holds us, and the Spirit who seals us....but we obtain it through Spirit-wrought perseverance.

John identifies himself with his audience.

but then he says he was on the Island called Patmos.

I have a couple maps here to try to show you where are for you to get your bearings.

Notice Corinth, Rome, the Mediterranean Sea, and Israel

Now zooming in a little we have the Island of Patmos. Patmos was a prison colony designated for slave labor in the mines.

John says he was there because of the Word of God and the Witness of Jesus.

He was faithful to proclaim the message of Christ, and so he was banished to Patmos for his crimes of proclaiming that there is but one true and living God and Lord and his name is not Emperor Domitian, but rather Jesus Christ.

An Entrusted Mandate - vs. 9-11

And so there he was.

Now look at vs 11.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. This phrase shows up a few times, and each time it refers to a person being caught up in a vision or trance-like state. The Spirit of God came upon him in a unique way that only a few people like Ezekiel, Peter, and Paul claimed to experience.

I believe the Lord’s day refers to a Sunday. Sunday ended up gaining the nickname of “The Lord’s Day” very early on in the life of the church, and the reason for that was because Jesus Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and so rather than meet on Saturdays, which is what the Jews who rejected Christ did, they began to gather on the Lord’s day, or Sunday. To me it makes the most sense to understand John as simply noting “this was on a Sunday”

what happened on that Lord’s day?

I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.

A voice like a trumpet is often associated with divine speech and authority. Right away we are given a clue about who is speaking to him, and it is not a normal human voice.

The voice commanded him:

Write in a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches.

This is the commission. This is the mandate. Write!

The significance of the seven churches is something we will get into more in the following weeks. Some have wondered why these churches were chosen.

these churches existed on common postal and trade circuit. Robert Thomas notes that this road “tied together the most populous, wealthy, and influential part of the Asia province” Traveling this route would lead to the message spreading to all of Asia.

These churches represent the primary spiritual conditions of the broader church. Each church has faced their own difficulties, have tolerated their own sins, and need to be either corrected or encouraged in their own unique way, but in ways that every church that has ever existed can learn from.

This is the mandate entrusted to John. Write. Send this to these churches.

He heard the words and then turned to see who was speaking, and the sight left him without strength.

An Exalted Manifestation - vs. 12-18

Sometimes we can read through a section like this and wonder, why all these seemingly bizarre details? What’s up with all this imagery?

There are specific reasons for this appearance, and the more you know you Old Testament, the more these details will make sense to you. You will have to bear with me here. I’m going to go pretty quickly and there are several details. I promise the picture they all paint at the end is worth it.

He sees seven golden lampstands. Now hold on to that detail, I’m going to pass over it and come back to it later because the speaker explains what that is.

In the midst of the lampstands is one like a son of man, clothed in an ankle-length robe, and girded with a golden sash.

First, the title son of man has its roots back in Dan 7:13

Daniel 7:13 LSB

“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 came near before Him.

Right away we must realize we are talking about a divine personage.

The robe is a sign of rank and dignity. Some believe it has a priestly connotation. Thomas questions this because we don’t see Jesus functioning as a priest throughout the book of Revelation, but rather as the judge and conquering king, so the priestly idea may not be in view.

The golden sash harkens back to

Daniel 10:5 LSB

I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose loins were girded with a belt of pure fine gold of Uphaz.

When we covered that section we noted that the identity of the man was almost certainly a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

Vs twelve has two more details. Hair white as snow and eyes like flames of fire.

These are more references to Daniel

Daniel 7:9 LSB

“I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His clothing was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with fire, Its wheels were a burning fire.

What is remarkable about this reference is that this is the Description of the Ancient of Days, not the son of Man. Remember that, because that will be important later.

Eyes like fire, and vs 15 notes the feet of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of many waters.

This recalls another Daniel reference

Daniel 10:6 LSB

His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.

It’s becoming clear that the same person that John is seeing is the same as he encountered by Daniel, some 650 or so years earlier.

vs 16, he has seven stars, I’ll comment on them when we get to vs 20, and sharp two -edge sword coming from his mouth.

This is a description of Christ in a few places in the book of Revelation.

This may call to mind Is 11:4

Isaiah 11:4 LSB

But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with uprightness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will put the wicked to death.

or Is 49:2

Isaiah 49:2 LSB

He has set My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also set Me as a select arrow; He has hidden Me in His quiver.

The Word of God is likened to as sharp two edged sword in Heb 4:12

Hebrews 4:12 LSB

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And as part of the armor of God in Eph 6.

A two-edged sword is designed to penetrate deeply into its victim, dealing a lethal wound. Rev 19:15 speaks of Christ’s ultimate victory coming from the sword from his mouth.

Revelation 19:15 LSB

And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the wrath of the rage of God, the Almighty.

The final detail is his face shining like the sun.

This is something that John has actually seen before on the mount of transfiguration.

Matthew 17:2 LSB

And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

John’s response? dude hits the ground like a rock. and to be honest. I probably would too. I’ve never seen anything that has caused me to pass out, but a sight like this I imagine would do the trick.

John falls down in reverence and fear of this being. Everything about these descriptions scream that this is a divine personage.

But he is told not to fear. Now the being identifies himself.

I am the first as the last. Similar to the designation of alpha and omega we saw in vs 8, this harkens back to another OT text: Is 44:6

Isaiah 44:6 LSB

“Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the first, and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.

Isaiah 48:12 LSB

“Hear Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.

I am the living one. The one who ever lives.

I am the one who was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever.

This is clearly at this point the exalted Christ. The one who died on the cross, was dead and buried, but then rose again from the dead. This is him! This is the guy! He’s HIM! And he never is to die again. He is alive forever and ever.

Finally, he possess the keys of death and hades.

Death. The time of our death. The fact of death. Christ, the one who died and rose again is Lord over death.

Hades. the place of the dead. Death is the state of death, Hades is the location. Christ is judge and he holds in his hands the keys of hades. He decides who enters there.

Once again, the picture is striking.

First, we must recognize this as Jesus Christ.

Second, it is striking that several details that have previously been attributed to God the Father are here being attributed to the Son, Jesus Christ. The white hair, the titles of first and last and the living one, these are all things that we understand to speak of the Lord God almighty, Yahweh, Himself! And yet here as John see this grand vision of Jesus Christ he sees and hears the testimony of Christ from his own lips that Christ shares in the divine attributes of the Father.

This text is a powerful apologetic against those who claim that Jesus was not God. He is the living one, He is the first and the last. He is Yawheh. He is God the Son, and yet shares in all the fullness of God.

This is who John sees. This is who John hears.

As we come into the final two verses, John’s Commission is re-stated. Write, John! Write!

An Explained Mystery - vs. 19-20

I noted two weeks ago how I see verse 19 providing the broad outline of the book. Write the things which you have seen, chapter 1, the things which are, that is to say, the current state of affairs, that’s the letters to the churches in chapter 2-3, and the things which will take place after these things, that’s chapter 4-22. We can break down the contents further, but those are the high-level headings.

I. Things which you have seen (Rev 1:1-20)

II. The things which are (Rev 2:1-3:22)

III. The things which will take place (Rev 4:1-22:21)

An Explained Mystery - vs. 19-20

But then we gain a little understanding of the imagery given in chapter 1.

I skipped over the explanation of the lampstands and the starts. That’s because Jesus explains it for us

The seven starts are the angels of the seven churches. The seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Churches being represented by lampstands speaks to the function churches are supposed to have. We are supposed to be a the light of the World, and Jesus calls his disciples in the sermon on the mount.

Jesus was said to be standing in the middle of the group of lampstands, which would signify Christ’s closeness to the church. He is not far off, he is near.

As for the stars, they are called angels. This is a little more challenging. The word for angel is a generic term that means envoy, or messenger, and we discern the meaning through context whether it is talking about a human or supernatural messenger. There are essentially three primary ways this has been understood by interpreters.

They are literal angels who function as emissaries to individual churches. Think of guardian angels, but for an entire church. One for the church in Ephesus, Smyrna, etc. If this is true, it’s neat to think that Pillar Fellowship would have an angel that serves the Lord in regard to us in some way. The linguistic advantage of this view is that throughout the rest of the book of Revelation, the word for angel is clearly referring to supernatural beings in every other use. The problem with this view is that when John writes to the angel, he seems to include them in the sins and struggles of the church, and that doesn’t make sense with them being unfallen angelic beings.

The second option is that they are the pastors of the churches. The word for angel can simply mean messenger, and these must be the prominent leaders in the church, the pastors, the elders, the overseers. They receive the letter and communicate it to the rest.

The third option is that the angels are not the pastors, but rather the carriers of the letter from Patmos to each church, fulfilling a similar role that men like Epaphroditus, Timothy, and others fulfilled for Paul. They are couriers, but ones who still serve in some representative way to the church as a whole.

It’s hard to be dogmatic here, but I believe the second option, that these angels are some prominent leaders within the churches, if not the primary pastors, are likely what is referred to here. The close identification with the church makes the angelic one seem unlikely, and the looseness of the third option leaves more questions in my mind than it solves. I think its best to understand the term for angels as the pastors of the church and would translate the word “messengers”

These stars were said to be in Jesus’ right hand. This displays Christ’s ownership and authority over them. The messengers are to serve at Christ’s bidding. All the more reason for Christ’s harsh words for some of them as we get into the letters to the churches in future weeks.

A text like this gives much data that needs to be explained. At times it can feel like data overload.

We have an older laptop at home and it’s one of those deals where sometime if you give it too many commands too fast it freezes up for a second and has to pause to catch up.

If that’s how you’re feeling here’s the chance to pause. Take a breath.

Explaining the details of a text is part of my job as the preacher. But the job isn’t finished until we understand why these details are significant.

I want to take a step back and consider the application of text to us.

Here are my two takeaways today:

Give Heed to the Revelation

Two weeks ago we spent time talking about why it is good to study revelation. One of those reasons was because it is the Word of God!

In most NT books we have a human author who is under inspiration writing that which God intends the church to have.

Here we have communication of the exalted Christ Himself through the apostle John!

John writes because he was told to write! John heeds the voice that is like a trumpet, for it has authority. John listens to the voice that sounds like many waters because of it majestic and overwhelming power.

Consider the voice of the one who spoke. Consider that he is the son of Man and the ancient of Days. He is the first and the last. he is the living one!

When Jesus talks, you listen! When Jesus Speaks, all other mouths be stopped. When the exalted Son makes his presence known and he asserts his voice, it is all eyes on him.

This message went to the seven churches, but those seven churches in that day represent the spiritual state all churches across time, those seven churches are representative of Pillar Fellowship in some way. It was written to them, but it was also written for us!

In the weeks ahead we are going to walk through the letters to the churches one at a time. The temptation is always to think about the details as applying to them and there, but we need to carefully consider the meaning to the here and now.

Jesus isn’t playing games. He stands as judge, with his robes and sash, with his eyes of fire penetrating into our souls, with the sword protruding from his mouth.

Jesus speaks. We listen. Give heed to the revelation.

Give Honor to the Revelator

What is a revelator? A revelator is someone who reveals something. Prophets in a sense can be called revelators, and some identify John as the revelator. In fact there is an old Southern Gospel Song titled John the Revelator. Don’t worry, I’m not going to sing it for you.

But John isn’t really the ultimately revelator here. John is a vessel. John is writing what he was commanded to write. The true revelator is Jesus Christ.

The image of Christ here commands our attention. The image of Christ here commands our worship.

This is the famed son of man from Dan7, He shares the divine attributes with the ancient of days, he is eternally self-existent, he shines in radiant glory, this is the exalted Son of God!

This is the one who has died, yet now lives! This is the one who holds the keys to death and hades.

This one commands our attention, yes! He commands our worship.

John’s response of falling on his face is the appropriate response. And yet our Lord is so kind and tender to touch John and say “fear not”

He deserves our honor. He deserves our worship. He deserves our reverence.

Give honor to the revelator.

This is particularly important when we consider the contents of the rest of the book. Jesus stands ready to judge. Soon we will see how he judged the 7 churches in Asia minor. not long after that we will see how he judges those who remain on the earth to face the fury of the wrath of God for their sin. Soon we will see how he judges when He comes to establish His Kingdom. Soon we will see how he judges as he sits on the Great White Throne.

For those who never come to a place of faith in him, for those who never bow before him in reverential awe, he holds the keys of death and hades. There will be a day when it is too late.

But for now. At this moment, there is still time. While you still draw breath you can listen and trust!

Jesus says I’m the one who died! Jesus Christ bore the sins of humanity upon himself in his death. But now he lives and shall live forever and ever. He holds the keys of death and hades and promises you resurrection....if you will come to him in faith.

And if you have. You have the kingdom. now is the task of persevering through our tribulation as we heed the voice of our King.

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