Revelation 1:9-11

Subject: Second Coming of Christ
Scripture: Revelation 1:9-11
Sermon: “John’s Commission to Write Revelation”

Introduction:
A.  Howard Hendricks in Beyond the Bottom Line: The greatest witness for Jesus Christ that I know anything about in the city of Dallas is not a preacher. He's an ophthalmologist. He was in the power structure of an evangelical church for twelve years and never led anybody to Jesus Christ. A group of college kids came along one day and said, "Hey, Doc, are you sharing your faith?"
       The doctor said, "No, as a matter of fact, I'm not. I don't even know how to go about it."
       They said, "We've got a little training program. How about getting involved in it?"
       He said, "Count me in."
       They taught him how to share his faith.
       This guy leads people to Christ as if it's going out of style: I was way out in a remote section of India, and I use this story as an illustration, but I didn't use his name, figuring nobody knew Dr. Jack Cooper. When I finished, a doctor came up and said, "You were talking about Jack Cooper weren't you?"
       I said, "How did you know?"
       He said, "I went to medical school in Dallas. While I was there, I went to see Dr. Cooper about my eyes. He led me to Christ and discipled me all the way through medical school."
       Today that doctor is the only licensed neurosurgeon in that part of India. He has absolutely unbelievable impact for Jesus Christ. He will tell you it started in the office of a Dallas doctor who knew why he was here instead of in heaven.

B.  Are we having an impact for Christ right where we live? Or are we concerned about having a good thing going and we don’t want to blow it by being the instrument God uses to convict people of their sin?

ILL Os Guinness as quoted by Howard Hendricks in Beyond the Bottom Line:  The main problem with American Christians is not that they aren't where they should be but that they are not what they should be right where they are as doctors, housewives, lawyers, computer salesmen, or nurses.

Bible Background:
A.  Introduction:
1.  Rev 1:1-3 = Introduction
2.  Rev 1:4-6 = Source
3.  Rev 1:6-7 = Theme
4.  Rev 1:9-11 = Setting and Commission of John – after including God’s emphatic declaration (1:8) that confirms the prophetic theme of the book, John turns his attention to a description of his encounter with glorified Christ on the island of his exile: first commission to write (1:9-11) source of the commission (1:12-16) restatement of the commission (1:17-20)
B.  John is about to have his first revelation of Jesus Christ in all his glory, the second time he would see him this way but not since the Mount of Transfiguration – Before he sees Christ, He is commissioned by Christ to reveal His Word to the churches

Transitional Sentence: The Problem and Privilege of Being a Witness for Christ

I.  Being a Witness for Christ Brings Persecution  Revelation 1:9

A.  The Inevitability of Persecution  Rev 1:9a – John’s physical circumstances
1.  The Reality of Christian Fellowship
(a)  Your Brother – John didn’t think he was better and wasn’t condescending to other believers because Jesus love him (disciple whom Jesus loved and lay in his bosom at the last supper) nor because he had received these revelations (Reason for Paul’s thorn in the flesh – 2 Cor 12) – he shows that he is on their level
(b)  Your Partner = sugkoinonew = lit. with fellowship, participation with – the Christian life is a partnership = binding commitment – we can’t sit back and watch a few do the work of the ministry, but we all are to obey Matt 28:19-20!
2.  The Sphere of Christian Fellowship
(a)  Partners in the tribulation
(1)  We will suffer if we are a witness for Christ!
(2)  “Tribulation” = pressure, oppression, affliction – not speaking of the 7 year tribulation period but the tribulation that believers go through in the church age – Phil 4:14 Nevertheless, you have done well to be partners in my affliction
ILL We don’t know tribulation in the USA like the rest of the world – that doesn’t mean the universal church is seeing tribulation today: 1,000 killed by Egyptian government for the faith; Indonesian Muslims rape the women, kill the men and burn the churches, Ecuador the Catholic church burns churches; Russia and China have killed millions
(3)  Remember when you do suffer, that the greatest temptation in suffering is to buy into the belief that God isn’t good – caused the fall of Adam and Eve
(b)  Partners in the kingdom
(1)  Kingdom of God, heaven
(2)  Not here in its fullness, but in its spiritual form – Matt 13
(c)  Partners in patient endurance
(1)  “uJpomonh” = to abide under the pressure – not giving way under trial – constantly connected with Christian living (Rom 5:3; 8:35-36; Rev 2:2-3, 19; 3:10) and it is an active and manly endurance, not a negative resignation
(2)  It is only possible “in Jesus”
(3)  To be effective in the kingdom, you have to have patient endurance through tribulation
ILL Charles: Patient endurance is “the spiritual alchemy which transmutes suffering into royal dignity”
ILL Moffatt: Patient endurance is the moral condition of participation in the tribulation and kingdom
ILL Warren Wiersbe says that realism is idealism that has been through the fire and got purified; cynicism is idealism that has been through the fire and got burned. Now whether you get burned or purified is not determined by the intensity of the heat but by the malleability of your spirit.
(4)  Tribulation and the need for patient endurance tells us that the kingdom in its fullness is not here yet but it will be ours if we persevere to the end – 2 Tim 2:12 If we endure, we shall also reign with Him – Rom 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

B.  The Impetus of Persecution  Rev 1:9b
1.  Patmos
(a)  Island off the coast of Asia Minor in the Icarian Sea (13 square miles, 10 mi. long and 5 mi. wide) 40 miles from Miletus – one of 50 islands called the Dodecanese
(b)  Important safe harbor for ships, but rocky and barren and scantily populated making it a perfect penal colony – John was in the midst of murders and thieves mining salt at the age of 85-90!
(c)  Domitian, the Roman emperor from 81-96 AD, who wanted to be worshipped by man, sent John here because of his preaching Jesus
2.  John was banished to Patmos for preaching Christ and Him crucified
(a)  2 Tim 2:8b according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned
(b)  John’s view of the ministry of preaching is viewed as an activity of Jesus with the Lord testifying through His apostle
3.  The impetus of persecution is to silence the preaching of Christ – what did Jesus say about silencing those who would proclaim His glory? The very stones would cry out!
4.  We are to share in Christ’s Sufferings by preaching Christ
(a)  Paul to the churches he had started: Acts 14:22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ”Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
(b)  Paul personally in Col 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
ILL Philip Yancey: Suffering can never ultimately be meaningless, because God himself has shared it.

II.  Being a Faithful witness for Christ Brings Privilege  Revelation 1:10-11 – John’s spiritual circumstances

A.  The Privilege of Communion  Rev 1:10
1.  “I was in spirit in the Lord’s Day”
(a)  Not the Holy Spirit, but he was caught away in spirit by the Spirit – John had an ecstatic experience like Peter (Acts 11:5) and Paul (2 Cor 12:1-7) – may have had Ezek 3:12 in mind = Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His place.”
(b)  On the Lord’s Day = first time used in Christian literature for Sunday, the day of the resurrection – may have been in worship, but probably before going to dig salt (people worked on the first day of the week on penal colonies!)
2.  “A great voice like a trumpet”
(a)  John doesn’t know it yet but the voice is Jesus
(b)  Trumpets are mentioned more in Revelation than in the rest of the NT put together and all occurrences are usually associated with the end times
(1)  1 Cor 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed
(2)  1 Thes 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first
(3)  Matt 24:31 “And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET  and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

B.  The Privilege of Commission  Rev 1:11
1.  “What you see write into a book”
(a)  Write what you see occurs 12 times (1:11; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; 14:13; 19:9; 21:5)
(b)  Parchment scroll which you unroll to read – Single scroll of Revelation would be approximately 15 feet long!
2.  “Send it to the seven churches”
(a)  7 lampstands = seven churches = possibly the best centers of communication – or the churches might have been chosen because of the endangerment by heretical tendencies and groups
(b)  Written to the churches of Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey
(b)  Order of the names of the 7 churches would also be the way this circular letter is to be delivered first Ephesus then North and South and then North again (moving counterclockwise) – churches all situated on a great populous road in the most influential part of Asia – see overhead*
(c)  Meaning of the churches names – see overhead*

Conclusion: The primary purpose of prophecy is to reveal Christ in such a way as to comfort Christians being persecuted for sharing Christ!

A.  Unsaved: Prophecy not written to the unsaved but to the saved! – most unsaved do not believe prophecy and to them it makes Christianity look Mickey Mouse – we must center on Christ in dealing with the lost – use the threat of the Lake of Fire only

B.  Believers must share in Christ’s sufferings
1.  2 Tim 3:12 And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
(a)  We can see the hidden rule of Christ (Rom 8:17) and how we can share now in His royal dignity and power in the midst of suffering
(b)  Christians must witness and have radical love in all spheres of life
ILL When you see the Jesus of Revelation 1:12-16 with His royal robe, and His girded breast, His white hair, His glowing feet, His flaming eyes, His roaring voice with the sword in His mouth, His right hand holding the churches and His face shining like the sun – how can you possibly be duped into thinking that we could fail?
2.  John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”