A Vision for the Church

A VISION FOR THE CHURCH

Revelation 1:9-20

The Bible includes many visions and revelations. In Old Testament times, such visions and revelations came primarily to prophets, priests, and kings. By the time of the New Testament era, even common people received them. This was the fulfillment of prophecy. The prophet Joel prophesied, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.” (2:28, NIV) As recorded in the book of Acts, chapter two, verses seventeen forward, the apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quoted the prophecy of Joel verbatim, proving to those present that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a fulfillment of prophecy.

Visions and revelations in the Bible serve a purpose. They relay a message from the divine world to mankind. The visions and revelations in the Old Testament serve this same purpose, using mediators, such as angels, or directly, using dreams. These visions and revelations have as their task to grasp the attention of the person to whom they’re given, to relate God’s will to that person, and to impact that person in such a way that the importance of doing what the vision, or dream, commands cannot be missed.

The vision John received while exiled on the Isle of Patmos serves this same purpose, with one huge difference. The vision John received was a direct vision of the exalted Christ. There was no mediator. Let’s look together at this totally unique vision, as recorded in Revelation 1:9-20. (READ TEXT)

As I said earlier, this vision was received by John while he was an exile on an island called Patmos, which is one of a small group of island off the coast of modern-day Turkey, Sporades or Cyclades. The island was used to banish political enemies of Rome.

It’s believed by some scholars that John didn’t lose all of his property or his rights, only his freedoms. John tells us, in verse nine, why he was there: “…because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” He was there for preaching the gospel of Christ. John wasn’t the only one guilty of this, as he tells us also in verse nine. To those he wrote he described himself as “your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus.” John was part of the church, suffering as a result of allegiance to Jesus.

John was given a vision of the exalted Christ for the benefit of the church. The seven churches, identified in verse eleven, and to whom John sent the Revelation (which contains the vision he received of the exalted Christ) was given for the express purpose of enabling these churches, representative of “the church,” to endure patiently their suffering. The vision sustained the church then, and it will sustain us now. How it does this is by revealing to us the exalted Lord Jesus Christ in such a way that we’re grasped by His awesome power and glory, we’re impacted by His purity and holiness, and our wills are made one with His.

While suffering for their faith, John’s brothers and sisters needed a new vision of the exalted Christ if they were to remain faithful to the Lord. We also need a new vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, exalted over the church and the world. We may not be suffering for our faith as John and his brothers were, but we are struggling to remain faithful to Christ in an increasingly godless and pluralistic world.

With this clear in our minds, let’s consider how this vision of the exalted Christ is a vision for the church.