With the Lord's help, I'd like
to draw your attention to part of that chapter we read together
from the book of the Revelation, chapter 1, and the latter part
of verse 17, particularly the latter part of verse 17, and
also to perhaps make comment on verse 18 also. where we read,
fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth
and who is dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen,
and have the keys of hell and of death. These words are words
of encouragement to the Apostle John who was there in exile on
the Isle of Patmos. We read in the opening verses
of this chapter that that John was there in the Isle of Patmos. He says in verse 9, I, John,
who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and
in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle
which is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony
of Jesus Christ. The year is round about A.D. 90 to A.D. 95, some 60 or more
years after the crucifixion the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, some 60 odd years after the Lord Jesus
Christ had ascended into heaven. When he ascended, you will recall
how the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to those disciples and John was
among them, and they had been addressed by those two men who
stood by them on the mount, dressed in white apparel, and they said
to the disciples, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
have seen him go into heaven. And ratifying, as it were, the
promise of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he had spoken to those
disciples, again, John being present there in the upper room,
where the Lord Jesus Christ himself had promised If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am there ye may be also. And whither I go, ye
know. and the way he no longer needed. The Lord Jesus Christ
has promised, the promise has been gratified, and there was
John, perhaps wondering why things were taking so long, and yet
the day and the hour and the year are not known to mankind. The time when the Lord Jesus
Christ will return will be settled there by Almighty God, but we
do know this, that it will not happen everyone of the election
of grace have been called by grace and everyone of the election
of grace are saved by the grace of God and called by him out
of nature's night into the glorious light and liberty of the gospel. So here is John, he's been the
bishop or the elder or the pastor, whatever you like to give, whatever
title you like to give to him, he has been the overseer and their own authorities. It
was probably in the time of Domitian that John had been taken into
exile for being the preacher of the everlasting gospel and
setting forth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords. Not the Roman Emperor, not the
emperors who considered themselves to be gods but they were feeble
gods because they came like the rest of mankind to die and one
succeeded another so their divinity was not much use to them but
the emperors, the Roman authorities considered that the preaching
of one who was king of kings and lord of lords was a threat
to the Roman empire And so they persecuted the Christian believers. And John, they took away from
Ephesus, away from his people, and put him on this island of
Patmos, a few miles off the coast of what is now western Turkey. And I'm told, I've never been
there, but I'm told that you can get off the ferry in the
docks on Patmos, and you can walk up the hill, who is reputed
to be the dwelling place of John the Divine, the Apostle John. Whether that's true or not, or
whether it's fable, I wouldn't like to say, but it's immaterial.
As to actually where on the island John was located, he was there
on the Isle of Patmos. But the reason, of course, is
more important. He suffered for the Lord Jesus
Christ, says the Apostle Paul to Timothy, yea, and all who
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And
here was John suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ, for the word
of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now the word
of God there, as it is spoken there, might be the written scriptures,
or it could be the reference to the title that is given to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember how John wrote in
his gospel in that first chapter, in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. Now this reference here
for the Word of God might be John referring to the eternal
nature of the Lord Jesus Christ that he is the eternal Son of
God but it also could be that he is referring to the Scriptures
of Truth because by the time that John was there on the Isle
of Patmos meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ the Old Testament
of course was fully accepted as the Word of God but also the
gospel records had been written and the epistles of Paul were
circulating the churches and were becoming to be recognised
as the Word of God and by the time John wrote the book of the
Revelation under the inspiration of the Spirit of God all the
other books of the New Testament had i've been written although
not finally classified as the word of god was uh... the uh... uh... he told me he could be
referred to uh... the word of god this is not just
in common but you know this also remains there uh... for the testimony
the lord jesus christ the testimony of the lord jesus christ in his
own heart how he had been called by grace by the lord jesus christ
those many years ago and what a mercy it is to look back over
many years and no doubt John was looking back many times as
he was there on the Isle of Patmos looking back over the ups and
downs of his walk with the Lord Jesus Christ how sometimes he'd
been on the mountaintop and sometimes he'd been in the deep valley
and quite often we ourselves can look back on our testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ and we look back to those seasons
of great blessing seasons when we've been up on the mountain
top and it's been almost like we could say that experience
that the disciples had of the transfiguration how we saw something
of the beauty and something of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
but then we've been there down we've been brought low we've
been brought very low sometimes perhaps because of our carelessness
because of our sinfulness and we're brought low into the valley
but there in the valley even the lily grows that beautiful
flower and the Lord Jesus Christ is the lily of the valleys there
is a hymn of course that says that Christ is the lily of the
valley well of course that's true, it's not fully true but
the scriptures tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the lily
of the valleys not just one valley but he is the lily of every valley
and we do go through deep valleys but we still have the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ with us remember how David speaks
in that most famous of Psalms, the 23rd Psalm he says, yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will
fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me and it's when we're in the valleys that we need the
rod and it's when we're in the valley that we need the staff
to comfort us for if the Lord left us alone when we were in
a deep valley we would go into deeper depression and anguish
of soul but the Lord is good because he brings us back to
himself like the lost sheep he picks us up and he puts us on
his shoulder and he carries us through the wilderness of this
world and so John is there on the Isle of Patmos for the Word
of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ and he goes on
to say that what his present situation was that day, that
Lord's Day so many years ago now there is a view being propounded
in these days that where it says the Lord's Day it really means
Caesar's Day and they said that apparently there was a law in
the Roman Empire that in order to live a peaceable and quiet
life that once a year you had to go into one of the temples
and you had to pick up the incense and place it on the fire on the
altar and say Hail Caesar and so they're saying that these
modern expositors are saying that when John says I was in
the Spirit on the Lord's Day that he is referring to that
day when the Roman citizens were required to go and sacrifice
and say Hail Caesar but this is nonsense of course this is
nonsense the Lord's Day is the day when we remember particularly
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead we
serve a living Saviour we serve one who was crucified he was
dead he was buried he was dead because he gave his life a ransom
for many He laid down his life so that sinners might go free.
He laid down his life that the penalty of the law should be
exacted upon him. That penalty that you and I deserve. We deserve eternal death. That's what the hymn writer says,
isn't it? My sins deserve eternal death, but Jesus died for me. and the Lord's Day is the first
day of the week and earlier in the epistles we read how the
collection was made on the first day of the week for the saints,
for the work of God and so to take it in the context of Holy
Scripture and not in the context of secular history we say that
the Lord's Day is the first day of the week particularly the
Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead and in his sacrifice
the atonement that he made was completely accepted and so the
sinner goes free and so when he was there in a spirit on the
Lord's Day he heard this mighty voice a voice like a trumpet
now the trumpet gives a sound it is a sonorous sound it is
a sound that awakens those who are slumbering the army is gathered
for the battle but the night before the battle they have made
ready their weapons and they've gone into their tents and they've
gone to sleep and they sleep they take as much rest as they
can so that they will be refreshed for the battle and what happens
the first thing in the morning? the trumpet sounds the bugle
sounds and they are awake they are awake for the battle it is
the sound of the battle to commence now you and I are called to be
soldiers we are called to be soldiers in God's warfare remember
how Paul writes to the Ephesians he says how that we are to be
clothed with the armour of God he says wherefore take unto you
the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and have him done all to stand and the trumpet
calls us to battle the trumpet calls us to battle and the trumpet
calls us to advance into that battle and so John hears this
voice as it were like a trumpet giving that clear sonorous sound
and if a trumpet giving uncertain sound who shall prepare for the
battle? well we are daily prepared for
the battle against sin, against Satan and against self all the
self rises up and we have to constantly fight against self
we have to subdue self the old man that is within again the
Apostle Paul speaks about the battle in the 7th chapter of
Romans where he speaks where he says that the good that I
would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do in a battle
I die daily he says in another place so there is this sound
of the trumpets giving a clear sound giving a sonorous sound
giving a waking sound and so he turns round and he heard that
voice that voice came to him what a mercy it is when God speaks
what a mercy it is God has not left himself without witnesses
and Almighty God the Triune God and the Son they speak through
their witnesses but most of all they speak in the Word remember
how Paul commences the epistle to the Hebrews and he tells us
how that God has spoken God, who has hundred times, and in
diverse manners, this vacant time passed unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds. He speaks in his Son. Would we
know something of the love of God? Oh, we only need but to
look at the Lord Jesus Christ. we need only to look at the Lord
Jesus Christ he has spoken and the first thing he says is that
I am the beginning and the end I am Alpha and Omega the first
and the last Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet
and Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet and of
course John is writing in Greek it is a privilege and it is a
mercy that we have the word of God in our own English language
we have a very good translation a perfect translation one without
error and it is a translation to keep hold of
but in our alphabets A is the first letter and Z is the last
letter so John is writing in Greek and he is under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, he is penning the words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which have already been spoken in verse 8, I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, and here in verse 11, I am Alpha
and Omega, the first and the last, and we are reminded of
the, from these words, of the infinity of Almighty God, he
was there in the beginning and he will be there at the ending,
all the empires of this world all the great men of this world
and all the treasures of this world and all the bounty of this
world will be cast away the world will perish as paul quotes in
our first chapter of hebrews they shall perish but thou remainest
and god remains what a wonderful thing it is that scientists that tell us that
the world began so many million years ago and came into being through a great
big explosion but they neither explain where the material came
from for the explosion they don't explain nor do they explain where
the oxygen came from nor do they explain where the spark came
from to cause the great explosion but that's bit by the by that
we are given that assurance that assurance that he is the beginning
and the ending what a mercy it is to be able to under the guidance
of the Holy Spirit of God to apply that truth to our own hearts
and our own minds God was there in the beginning the beginning of our lives, our
conception it was that almighty God that brought our parents
together and we were born into a family and so on our lives,
our set-outs, our planned-outs so that we come to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then we are brought to our
closing days and we are taken into heaven. He is Alpha and
Omega. Remember what the Psalmist said,
Psalm 73 and verse 23. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Thou shalt hold me by my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive
me to glory. Peter said to him, having not
seen ye love, but then it will be face to face and full of glory
we will see the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the Alpha and Omega
that guides our lives and none can cause Almighty God to deviate
from that pathway he has given for us. So when we have that
happy pathway that pathway that leads into seasons and days of
the Son of God when we're in close fellowship with him rejoice
in such things indeed Paul says rejoice and again I say rejoice
rejoice always remember these things but when we're brought
low, it is the Lord that hides his face from us and it is the
Lord that brings us out of those dark periods so you are enabled
by the Spirit, enabled to stay with the Psalmist I will fear
no evil, what a mercy it is so John is then meeting with the
Lord Jesus Christ he is meeting with the one who is the first
and the last, the eternal son of God and he receives this instruction
to write this book those things that he will see and indeed in
verse 19 we have those words write the things which thou hast
seen and the things which are and the things which shall be
hereafter and he also through punctuation he is also told to
write what he says in the first half of verse 20 because that's
where the sentence comes to an end write the things which thou
hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall
be hereafter the mystery of the seven stars which thou hast sourced
in thy right hand and the seven golden canvases to write about
those things that's the instruction to John to write about those
things well what are the things that he has seen? well those
things that he has seen in his life, in his experience to put
down those things that he has experienced himself but also
to write of those things that happened in the first chapter
of the book of the Revelation he writes those things which
have been set down as the first chapter of the book of the Revelation
then he writes he is to write the things which are he is writing
about the present state of the churches to whom he is addressing
these epistles the church at Ephesus, Smyrna Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea obviously we don't have time
to look into those two chapters but you can see how the state
of those churches reflects the state of the churches today.
There are those that have laboured with patience and they can't
bear evil. There is the church that is lukewarm
and they're neither cold nor hot. And because they're neither
cold nor hot, the Lord says, I will spew thee out of my mouth
and when we look at the various states of the church we can see
that they reflect the state of the church today and again what
a mercy it is to be in a church that seeks to follow the word
of God to have the Lord Jesus Christ as being the one who is
at the centre the one who is the Lord of the church and so
he tells us what he sees in this first chapter he sees this person
in the midst of the seven candlesticks one likened to the Son of Man
clothed with a garment down to the foot and so he goes on to
describe what he sees how he sees something of the beauty
and something of the glory and something of the purity of the
Lord Jesus Christ and also to see something of his power because
his feet burned were like at fine brass as they burned in
a furnace and there he is speaking about heat and power and judgement
and his voice as the sound of many waters you can hear a waterfall
rushing and the river rushing over the rocks and making a tremendous
roar and again he speaks of power electricity is generated is it
not by hydropower by the water running over the wheel of the
generator so the Lord Jesus Christ he has power when he speaks there
is power in his voice remember how he stood at the tomb of Lazarus
and said Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came forth there
was no power in Lazarus he didn't stand in front of Lazarus' tomb
and say Lazarus if you want to you can come out of that tomb
now it all depends upon your own free will you have to raise
yourself up from the table on which you are lying you have
to take off those grave clothes and then you have to come out
of course if the Lord Jesus had said something like that that
body would have remained because there was no life there but the
life came into the body when Jesus with authority had said
to him Lazarus come forth and he which was dead came forth
all the power is not in ourselves it's not in our ability it's
not in what we can do it's not in our desire for the power is
in the word of the gospel applied by the spirits of God the John
had earlier written as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name, which were born not of blood, not of natural descent,
nor of the will of the flesh, because the flesh is weak, nor
of the will of man, because the free will of man is to sin, not
to follow in God's ways, for as Paul says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the spirit but of God and here Lazarus
was called out of the grave and the power that comes to the sinner,
the awakened sinner is that he is born of God's spirit and he
is brought to cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ and then John describes the one who who
has in his right hand seven stars he has power and authority over
the churches and down to his mouth proceeds a sharp two edged
sword the sword of the spirit and so John sees all these things
this is his situation he sees the Lord Jesus Christ he hears
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to him and he falls at his feet
and when I saw him I felt his feet as dead and he laid his
right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and
the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am
alive forevermore amen and have the keys of hell and of death
I would have thought that John would have known all those things
but what a blessing it is and what a mercy it is when those
things come afresh to us all we've read are passages of the
scriptures no doubt over many years and as we've read perhaps
the book of Psalms for perhaps the 50th or whatever time and
we read through the Psalms and we read something and it comes
afresh to us it's fresh to us there is dew upon the word of
God and it is applied to our hearts or we're singing a hymn
we've sung it many times since childhood and there are some
particular words in a verse and they come afresh to us they come
like dew well says John when I saw this one when I saw the
eternal son of God when I saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ I
fell at his feet instead there was no strength left in me all
my ability all my willingness it was gone and I was weakened
I was weakened because I needed the power and the strength of
the Lord Jesus Christ and so he says the Lord Jesus Christ
laid his right hand upon me he put his hand upon me just as
he raised the widow's son name he put his hand upon that widow's
son and raised him off the bier of the young maiden he took her
by the hand and said, tell her to queue by, little maid I send
to thee, arise the power is there, the power is in the Lord Jesus
Christ is no longer on the cross as the Roman church would have
us believe as they fill their churches with crucifixes they
need to be reminded that the Lord Jesus Christ is powerful
that he is alive and that he is alive he only died because
he took upon himself the guilt and punishment of sin and he
gave his life a ransom for many death overtakes us there comes
a time when we have no power to resist the icy tentacles of
death but not with the Lord Jesus Christ
he willingly yielded his life he gave up the ghost and as he
did so he cried out he has one word in Greek, finished, complete
and that he had finished the work of redemption fear not I
am the first he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me and
then there was that personal word to the apostle John, fear
not what a mercy it is to be unable to hear the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ we are people full of fear we've seen it in
the last 12 months or so haven't we? people being afraid they've
been walking down the street and there's been someone coming
to you and they see you and they can't move quick enough to get
out of your way and move out of your way at least 2 metres
away from you because they're afraid everyone is full of fear
it says Almighty God to Isaiah and this is chapter 9 43 of Isaiah, he says, But now thus saith the
Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not. Fear not. And he gives us seven
reasons why we should not fear. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. What a mercy it is that there is redemption. Redemption's
price has been paid in the blood and the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ the second reason is I have called thee
by thy name recalled by almighty God into that light and liberty
of the gospel then he says thou art mine oh the children of God
have been the children of God from eternity past they were
given to Christ in covenant bond and he came in covenant bond
to pay their redemption price and then the fourth reason is
I will be with thee, in verse 2, I will be with thee and through
the rivers they shall not overflow thee and he says that he will
be with you in the fire, in the trials the fiery trial, the afflictions
when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned
like those three children of Israel and cast into the fiery
furnace. Nebuchadnezzar said, did we not
cast three yet? But yet I see a fourth, one likened
to the Son of God. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is
with us in the fire. And then there's a greater reason
why we should not fear in verse three. For I am the Lord thy
God, I am almighty God. I am Jehovah thy God, the covenant
God. And the seventh reason is, by
saying there are always reasons why uh... we uh... we need not be fear not on the
first uh... uh... the last last time is gone
this morning uh... governing the uh... we will try
and continue this evening by considering uh... these words
you know and the first and the last of all of these places