Sermon Tone Analysis

“I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying, „Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.

I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

As for the mystery of the seven stars that 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.‟”1

Our Lord is alive.

He is here.

He dwells with His people.

This is the testimony of the Faith.

Too often, we who are Christians have permitted the unbelieving world to define our Faith.

We imagine that because our eyes do not see the Risen Saviour standing in our midst, He is not present.

However, the testimony of the Word is that the Master is among us.

The world cannot recognise His presence.

Earth dwellers are accurately described by a story that I once heard.

The children had been instructed to bring to class a report describing what they had done in the summer just past.

Johnny, raised in a godly environment, was first to read his story.

He told how his family had taken a vacation to the mountains.

There, he had witnessed the beauty of God‟s creation.

He concluded by saying how thrilled he was to witness all that God had made.

The teacher—one of those modern, faithless individuals who imagined that she was the sole arbiter of wisdom appointed to destroy the faith of her charges— rebuked the lad.

“Johnny, do you really believe God made the mountains?”

“Yes, teacher,” Johnny replied confidently.

Then, the teacher asked, “Johnny, have you ever seen God?”

“No, teacher, I‟ve never seen God,” Johnny replied.

“Have you ever smelled God, heard God or touched God?” the teacher continued.

Again, Johnny admitted that he had never smelled, heard or touched God, at which point the teacher confidently asserted, “Then, if you can‟t see God, smell God, hear God or touch God, God must not exist.”

Johnny was devastated by this crass assault against the values taught by his parents.

However, little Sally spoke up.

“I understand what you are saying, teacher.”

Then, turning to the class, she asked, “Do you believe our teacher has a brain,” she asked?

Of course the students laughed at such an absurd question.

However, Sally quickly followed that question with this assertion, “None of us have ever seen the teacher‟s brain; none of us have smelled, touched or heard the teacher‟s brain.

Therefore, our teacher does not have a brain!”

Class was dismissed for the remainder of the day.

The world cannot be the arbiter of this most holy Faith because the world is unable to recognise the reality of the True and Living God; the world neither hears God nor acknowledges His authority.

It is a tragic fact that those of this world are spiritually dead; they cannot know God because they are not known by God!

However, the individual who knows God, or rather who is known by God, does not need evidence that He exists—they are confident that He is! Underscore in your mind the vital difference between knowing about God and knowing God.

There are multitudes that know about God.

Our seminaries and religious institutions are filled with people who know about God; like the Athenians whom Paul met, these learned people are “in every way … very religious” [see ACTS 17:22].

However, what they worship is unknown.

As Christians, we are oft-times challenged to defend why we believe in Christ the Lord.

The simple answer to such challenge is that the Spirit of God lives within our hearts, and we are possessed of certainty of the Risen Son of God.

He lives within us and resides among us.

Whenever we gather to worship as the Community of Faith, the Risen Saviour is with us, walking up and down in the midst of His churches.

Whenever we bow in prayer, the Son of God bends down to hear our plea; and He delights to give us an answer.

In the midst of our various trials, the Son of God is ever with us, standing with us and giving us strength to endure.

In the opening paragraphs of the Book of the Apocalypse, John writes of a day that was unlike any day he had ever experienced; the day was unlike any day he would ever experience.

The apostle had been exiled to the Isle of Patmos.

It was “the Lord‟s Day,” a Sunday, the first day of the week; John was worshipping.

as was the custom among the earliest followers of the Christ.

As he worshipped, he heard a voice, the sound of which can only be described as awesome.

The voice commanded him to write an account of what he was about to see, addressing the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia.

It is here that we pick up the account, focusing in particular on the presence of the Living Saviour, the Risen Son of God.

Turning to see the source of the voice that he heard, John saw “seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” [REVELATION 1:12a-16].

Little wonder that he fell at the feet of this awesome personage, his strength fleeing from his body as darkness flees before the rising sun!

Awesome as this personage was, John nevertheless absorbed numerous details about this individual.

In particular, John noted that this One was standing in the midst of “seven golden lampstands,” and that in His hand He “held seven stars.”

Momentarily, this awesome Individual would speak of the stars and the lampstands as mysteries, identifying what John actually saw.

Understand that in biblical parlance, a mystery is not some frightening incident or situation; a mystery is a truth that could not be known until God reveals it to His people.

For instance, Paul, writing the Roman Christians, speaks of the fact that the Jews refused to believe the Messiah at His presentation as a mystery.

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” [ROMANS 11:25].

Drawing that letter to a conclusion, he speaks of Christ Jesus presenting His life as a sacrifice as a mystery.

“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages” [ROMANS 16:25].

Paul writes in a similar vein to the Church at Colossae as he identifies the revelation of Jesus Christ as a mystery.

“I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God‟s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” [COLOSSIANS 2:1-3].

In his first missive to the Corinthian Christians, the Apostle speaks of the transformation of believers at the return of Jesus Christ as a mystery.

“Behold!

I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” [1 CORINTHIANS 15:51].

Let me give two other instances to demonstrate this truth.

Paul speaks of the progress of lawlessness—rejection of godliness and exaltation of man‟s will over God‟s will—as a mystery.

“The mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way” [2 THESSALONIANS 2:7].

The growth of wickedness is a mystery, and so it is only appropriate that we should know there is “the mystery of godliness” that is now provided to this dying world.

The Apostle writes, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,

Justified in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,

Preached among the Gentiles,

Believed on in the world,

Received up in glory.”

[1 TIMOTHY 3:16]2

Therefore, a mystery is a truth that would not be apparent without divine revelation.

In the text before us, the Risen Son of God speaks of the seven stars as a mystery, and of the seven golden lampstands as a mystery.

He identifies the seven stars as the angels—the messengers or the pastors—of the seven churches; and the seven golden lampstands are the churches.

What I ask you to focus on for this time together is the revelation that the Risen Saviour stands in the midst of His churches, and He holds His messengers in His hands.

In particular, I want to focus on the presence of the Son of God with His people; but I ask you to indulge me for a brief moment to say that He holds in His hand those whom He appoints to Holy Office.

There are boards—power brokers, mere mortals who politic to be elected as elders or deacons whether possessing divine appointment or not—that imagine they control God‟s messenger.

They think they will hire, and thus they can fire.

However, the one appointed by the Master need never fear such despicable power brokers.

The man of God is not a hireling, cringing because some delicate soul had her or his feelings hurt.

Appointed by the Son of God to declare the mysteries of the Faith, the messenger of Christ can rest confident in Him who holds His servant in His own hand.

The unbowed Apostle gives a charge to every servant of the Living Saviour to stand firm when instructs Timothy, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” [1 TIMOTHY 4:1, 2].