THE AMAZING TOUCH OF THE SAVIOR

Revelation 1:9-20
Bob Bonner
August 21, 2005

Sometimes, we can learn some amazing lessons about love from our relationship with our pets. If you have ever had a pound puppy, one who in its early months had experienced abuse by a previous owner or from others in its world, it, in particular, can teach us important lessons about love.

The other day, I was with Duncan, my daughter’s dog, whom we cared for, for the first two of his beginning three years of life. Duncan was one of those rescued pound puppies. Some of you know the fond affection I particularly have for that dog. Returning him to my daughter was not only right, but was a sacrificial act of love on my part. Recently, while I was working on a project at their home, Duncan was lying off to the side of the house in the dirt. A car came by my daughter’s home, and made a tire-screeching stop. Not knowing where Duncan was at that moment, I wheeled around and yelled, “Duncan!”

Meanwhile, Duncan had been awakened by the same screeching brakes and was double stunned when I yelled his name. From something dark within, maybe something that must have happened in his past, he immediately dropped his head, cowering as though he were going to get a beating. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, but he had heard the voice of the “Judge.”

I quickly realized what had happened, and in a calm and gentle voice, called him over to me. He dragged himself slowly to me, with his head down. I reached down and gently lifted up his head and said, “I’m sorry Duncan. I didn’t mean to scare you. You are a good dog, and I love you.” I proceeded to stroke his head, and immediately, his old master’s touch brought back the countenance of joy that is usually on his face. He knew once more that he was loved.

Do you know that you are unconditionally loved like that? Do you know that God loves you and wants you to know it, no matter what is happening in this crazy world around you? This morning, I hope that you will see that, as we look once again at the book of Revelation.

Because of the uniqueness of our section of study for this morning, it is probably best for us to read the entire section first, and then go back to examine it more closely, highlighting and explaining those parts that raise questions or have a significant role to play in our lives. So, please follow along in your Bibles as I read these verses in Revelation l:9-20.

“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 testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, “Write in a book 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. 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. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, 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.”

The important facts, which form the background of this “Revelation of Jesus Christ” are introduced in verse 9. John was well-known to the seven churches to whom he penned this revelation. Since John had been an elder in Ephesus, he probably was also a significant leader, an apostle to the other seven churches nearby. He knew them and their tendencies. He had probably served them for 40 years. Because he shared their faith in Jesus and the specific tribulation of the times for declaring their faith in Jesus, he was indeed, their “brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation.” He not only shared in their present trouble, but in their future place in the kingdom, as well as in the future persecution of their faith, which would be ongoing and under which they would have to persevere.

At the point of receiving this vision, John had been banished to the Roman penal colony on the Isle of Patmos because of his commitment to stand up for and to speak out for Jesus Christ. The Roman emperor, Domitian had hoped that by sending John away he could silence him.

Patmos is a small island that sits about 600 or 700 miles to the east of Rome in the Aegean Sea, located just off what is known today as Turkey. The seven churches mentioned in v. 11 are given in geographical order, in a half-moon circle, beginning at Ephesus on the coast and moving north to Smyrna and Pergamum, then swinging east and south to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

The Isle of Patmos is of an irregular shape and measures only about 6 miles wide by 10 miles long, depending upon how you measure the island. Originally, it was an island that was cultivated and was called “Palmosa” or “Island of the Palms.” Speculation has it that the island, once rich in trees, had been stripped of its trees, leaving it a dry, dreary and desolate place.

During Roman times, it contained a stone quarry and some mining excavations but very little else. It was covered with rocks and very little vegetation. It’s obvious why this island was chosen to be a penal colony. Besides being a depressing and hopeless or lifeless environment, it was also a place from which it was impossible to escape.

Later, in 1088, the monasteries and Catholic churches proliferated on the island, typically built right on top of pagan temple sites.

A Roman historian, Victorinus, claimed that John, at his old age was forced to labor in the stone quarries and mines on Patmos. After several years of being exiled to Patmos, Emperor Nerva, who followed after Emperor Domitian, released John from prison. According to historians Irenaeus, Clement and Eusebius, John then returned to Ephesus, where I believe he recorded this revelation of Jesus Christ.

It was in the midst of these bleak circumstances on Patmos, that Christ visited John and gave him the most extensive revelation of future world events ever given to one man, and for sure, in all of the New Testament. Interestingly, several great writers of the Old Testament also shared his experience of writing Scripture while living under harsh circumstances: Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, while wandering through the wilderness, leading a group of whining, ungrateful and faithless rebels. David wrote many psalms while he was fleeing King Saul’s persecution. Isaiah also lived during trying times, dying a martyr’s death for his faithfulness. Ezekiel wrote in exile. Jeremiah’s life was filled with persecution from his own people, as he wrote the Word of God. Peter’s epistles were penned just before his martyrdom. So, John stands in great company with other writers of Scripture; when he pens this book under intense days of persecution.

In verse 10, John makes a statement that has led to various interpretations. He states, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” What does that mean?

Many have decided that “in the Spirit” means somehow John’s being, his very person, had been taken control of by the Holy Spirit. This is a passage that some use to support the teaching of being “slain in the Spirit” whereby the Holy Spirit so comes upon a person’s life that he has no control over himself or what he does. Whether that practice is real or not, I don’t believe this passage supports it. But some do believe this passage supports it and that’s why some translations spell the word “Spirit” with a capital “S” rather than with a small “s” as it is written in the original language. There is no capital “S” used here in the original Greek language of the New Testament.

I take a different view of what John has in mind here, when he writes about being “in the spirit.” I do not see this verse or several other verses in Revelation emphasizing the agent or person of the Holy Spirit as the transporter of John into a spiritual realm, as I do see John emphasizing that the realm he had entered into was different than any earthly physical, time and space realm he had ever been in before.

I understand John to be referring to being transported from the realm of space and time that we normally live in to another spiritual realm that allowed him to actually see the future world events to come. As a result of being a witness to these events, he would later record these happenings for generations of believers to come. In so doing, he did his best, with the words and the understanding of his time, to explain all that unfolded before his eyes. He tried to explain things in the language of his day, that may have made more sense to his readers back then, than it does to us.

The following are observations that I believe strongly support this view:

If this were a case supporting the reference here to “the Holy Spirit” coming upon the Apostle John and taking control over his life, the article “the” would most likely have been included to refer to “the Spirit.” But the article “the” is not in the original Greek text. In other words, this phrase literally reads, “I was in spirit.”

Second, the verb translated “I was” is better rendered, as some translations have it, “I became,” indicating a change in condition, as well as this being an event that took place in the past, before he had recorded this vision, after he left the Island of Patmos. John went from being in one condition of time and space, to another, a spiritual condition of being in the future.

This approach to understanding “I became in spirit” also better explains John’s reference later in 4:2. There we find John once more in that spiritual and invisible to the naked eye realm known as “the heavenlies.” As written in our passage, he again states in the same form as in our passage, “I became in spirit.” Once more, the article “the” is also missing.

It also better explains John’s experience in Revelation 17:3 and 21:10 where John states that he was “carried away in spirit.” Once more, there is no article defining that he was being controlled or carried away by “the Spirit.”

Finally, a similar experience that happened to John also happened to the Apostle Paul, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, where we read that he was transported into this invisible spiritual realm called “the heavenlies.”

I have no doubt that the agent that carried both Paul and John into this spiritual realm was the Holy Spirit. What I do not see here is that the agent, the Holy Spirit is being stressed here as much as the state of being, and that invisible spiritual realm is what Paul has in mind.

If this view is correct, then it makes sense in the rest of this passage, that John was actually awake, not dreaming, but awake and alert and fearful to what was happening around him and fearful of what he first saw. In fact, according to verse 17, his fear of what and who he saw caused him to fall to the floor. At that point, he could hear the Lord’s voice and even feel the Lord’s touch on his body, as Jesus tried to calm John’s fear as to what he saw and heard. John was very much in control of his eyes and ears, even though his emotions, understandably so, were running wild at the time.

When John mentions that it was “the Lord’s day” there is no solid evidence that this expression refers to the first day of the week; but rather, it most likely is a reference to the Hebrew concept of “the day of the Lord.” That Old Testament expression refers to God’s final dealings of judgment and sovereign rule over all the earth. Hence, when John was looking into “the Lord’s day,” he was actually a witness to the future closing historic events of our world as we know it. Again, this is another indication that this book refers to future events that looked way beyond John’s life and the life of believers during the first century.

At first, John hears a voice, but he doesn’t know whose voice it is. The voice is coming from behind him. This voice instructs him to write down on a scroll what he sees and to send this scroll to those seven churches in Asia with which he had had years of contact and many relationships.

After hearing the instruction, but not knowing from whom it came, John’s first response is to turn around and see who it is that is speaking to him. In doing so, his eyes gazed upon a scene like one he had never seen before. He was so overwhelmed by it all, that he tells us not what was most important in the scene, but what his eyes, step-by-step, first noticed.

First, we read that he saw the “seven golden lampstands” which Jesus tells us in verse 20 refer to the seven churches mentioned in verse 11. Why does Jesus call these churches “lampstands?” Because their purpose, the purpose of every local body of believers down through history is to do what a lampstand does. Our purpose is to give forth the light that uncovers the truth. Note, will you that we are called the lampstand, not the candles or the light. We are bearers of the light. Jesus is the light and the truth, and as we live for Him, His light shines through us as a light on a lampstand, shining into a world overcome by darkness. This is the sole purpose of the Church and of each Christian’s life, to pass along to others verbally, as well as by the way we live, that Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. Only as we submit to Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, will we be transferred from the kingdom of darkness that surrounds this world, into His kingdom of light and truth.

Following the lampstands, John’s eyes become captivated by the real center of attraction, Jesus Christ. We read in verse 13, “...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.”

Someone like a “son of man” is a title that Daniel the prophet used in 7:13 which referred to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. When in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the writers use this expression, “the Son of man,” it is exclusively in reference to Jesus. Hence, it would be only proper to assume the same person is referred to here.

Those Jews alive at this time, would recognize the clothing Christ was wearing to be that which would designate Him to be after the order of a priest and judge. The robe was typical of the garments worn by the high priest. The golden sash was the typical color reserved for deity, which said to John that Jesus was not just a high priest, but that He was indeed equal to God.

In verse 14, his “white hair” refers to eternality as well as to wisdom that comes with age. “His eyes were like a flame of fire” combines two poetic descriptions of God that are commonly used to described two of God’s attributes. “His eyes” refer to God’s ability to see everything. “Fire” when used in relationship to an action of God usually points to some form of judgment or discipline. When you put these two together, you have a picture of Christ, who is God, who sees and knows all that the human race has done against Him and the flame refers to His being indignant about what He sees. In the end, this description points to Christ’s pending judgment of the earth. And because He sees everything, He alone can judge fairly.

If you have time, you might want to look up Daniel 7:9-11, which describes God as the “Ancient of Days.” When reading that passage, one can’t help but see that the “Ancient of Days,” or God, and Jesus, as revealed in Revelation 1:13-15, are one and the same in essence. According to the rest of Revelation, Jesus indeed does judge all of the earth, as God and King.

Verse 16, “In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”

In verse 16, the “right hand” is the place of honor, as well as a sign of sovereign possession (Ephesians 1:20). The “stars,” according to what Jesus tells us in verse 20 refer to the seven “angels” or more literally, the “seven messengers” to the seven churches. Rather than being angelic beings, they were probably human messengers, leaders in the seven churches who were responsible for the welfare of the believers in those churches. These leaders probably read this book to those in their respective churches.

What comes out of the “Son of man’s” mouth is judgment, described as a two-edged sword. This sword was the larger sword used in John’s day for swinging over your head so as to execute someone. It was not the small sword, used as a dagger by the zealots for the purpose of trying to wound, hurt or if you were lucky, kill someone. When stabbed with the smaller sword, one could live. In Hebrews, this small sword was used like a scalpel, to carefully uncover unbelief, or to reveal one truth in light of another. In contrast, this long sword had one purpose, to kill, to bring devastating judgment. If you where hit solidly with this sword, you would surely die.

The point: Jesus Christ is no longer a baby in Bethlehem, nor is He the wounded Savior, a wimpy Lamb on the cross. He is now the Lord of glory, the judge, before whom every human authority, every human being will bow and answer to.

If we had more time to examine the implications of each of the descriptive phrases of Christ found in verses 13-16, we would see that they declare the following attributes as belonging uniquely to Jesus Christ, and no other human being: He is omnipotence, righteousness, sovereignty, majesty, and possessor of truth who will judge all who have ever lived on the earth.

Upon seeing Jesus, John tells us, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.”

After first hearing Jesus speak, and then after seeing Jesus in His glory, John hit the floor, face down, like a dead man in total humility and fear. Remember, John is the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” John is the one who was always closest to Jesus, always reaching out to touch Him, straining to hear His every word. Back in the upper room, when Jesus was still in His human form, John was the one who put his head on the Savior’s breast, in intimate fellowship.

But now, after more than forty years of service, this apostle of love meets again the object of his love, Jesus Christ, and his first reaction is to hit the floor! For the first time, John sees Jesus, post ascension in his glorified, powerful and majestic state of being. Now, for the first time, John sees Jesus in His other equally important role, the judge of all the earth, amidst His all-consuming fire! He knew that Jesus would be this judge, but he never before saw Him in His post-ascension, glorified state. Overwhelmed by His glory, he did what the Apostle Paul did, when he first met Christ...hit the deck. This was no person to mess with.

But notice this Judge’s first move toward His beloved and frightened disciple, one who is just like you, in Christ’s eyes, if you know Him as your Savior and Lord. In the rest of verse 17, we read Christ’s second statement to John, “And He placed His right hand on me, (note, that right hand is the hand of authority, power and honor) saying, “Do not be afraid.” Wow! How humbling, yet reassuring that must have been to John. That touch reminded John and us that the overpowering person we are about to see in action throughout the rest of this book is also the God we love—and who loves us. The first words out of the Savior’s mouth at this point are those of love and compassion. He says, “Don’t be afraid, I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

After identifying Himself as the one who had died and was the resurrected Christ with whom, years before, John had spent forty days, Jesus tells him that He possesses the the keys of death and of Hades. “Keys of death” represents Christ’s authority over death, in that He can bring about resurrection to the believer. The reference to “Hades” points to Christ’s authority to judge and determine who will spend eternity in hell.

With those words, with His touch of love, Jesus is the lifter of John’s head. Jesus lets John know that he stands approved, forgiven, fully accepted for having put his entire confidence in Christ as his personal Savior and Lord. He has nothing to fear from this time forward. John still is His beloved disciple.

Then Jesus gives John some final instructions in verse 19, “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.”

Notice the three verbs used by Jesus in His command to John to write: they are past (“have seen”), present (“which are”) and future (“which will take place”). There is a pattern here that points to this statement as being a divine historical outline of the book of Revelation, given to us by the eternal God. In other words, this book is about Christ’s reign in the past, Christ’s reign during John’s present life, and Christ’s reign in the future, long after John is gone, and in the future to us.

In fact, I believe that this verse actually gives us an outline of the book of Revelation. As I see this book, it breaks down into three sections, following the pattern of verse 19. In the first section, beginning with 1:1 through 1:20 we have those things which were past history to John, the “things which you have seen.” Beginning with 2:1 through 3:22 we have the present history to John, “the things which are.” And finally, the largest section of the book, beginning with 4:1 going through 22:21, future history to John, those things which he won’t live through, and some of us have yet to live through, “the things which shall take place after these things.”

We, like John, will one day meet up with Jesus, the lover of our souls as well as Jesus the Divine Judge. Like John, I suspect that even if you know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, the first time you see Him in all of His majestic glory, you and I won’t be able to do anything but humbly bow before Him. And then, like with John, Jesus will place His hand on us, say, “Do not be afraid.” Then we will remember that we are His.

But if you don’t know Him as the God almighty...if you don’t know Him as your personal Savior...the only one on whom you can depend to make you approved before God, then you won’t receive that right hand of Christ, that reaches down to the humble, lifts your head up and says welcome home. Instead, you will be faced with the judge over all of the earth who will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” And with that, you will walk into eternity, alone, without Christ or anything that you can imagine that is good.

But you don’t have to let your life end up that way. You can put your life in the hands of the Savior. Just tell Him that you recognize your rebellious attitude toward Him and your wrongdoings. Ask Him to forgive you and to come into your life to be the master of your life. If you do, He will forgive you and He will come into your life and He will begin the process of transforming you into the person deep down you want to be and the person God wants you to be.

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