This week we begin to address the Lord’s message to the seven churches:

         “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

         ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 

         ‘and you have perseverance and have...

       We now come to Revelation 1:17-20:    

    And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 

    “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

    “Write the things that you have seen, the things that are, and the things that will take place after this. 

    “The mystery...

         The next verse in our study is Revelation 1:17:    

         And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last” (NKJV). 

         At the time John received this revelation, he was the only one of the twelve still alive. Therefore, he had walked with the Lord Jesus more than any other apostle. The most intimate of the apostles with Jesus, John would lean his head up against the Lord’s breast as they...

         In Revelation 1:16, John describes the Lord: 

         “His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”

          The sun’s energy sustains natural life and makes it possible. The face of God also sustains all natural and spiritual life and makes it possible. As the Apostle Paul said to the philosophers of Athens, “In Him we live, and move and have our being” (see Acts 17:28 NKJV).

          We can recognize people in two basic ways—either by their face or by their voice. Unless someone has a unique factor about their hand, such as a finger missing, how...

     Last week we studied Revelation 1:12-16, the description John gave of one of the most spectacular visions of the Lord that a man was given to see. Jesus stood in the midst of the seven lampstands that verse 20 says are the seven churches. Here we will focus on the last part:  

        and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

     The sword coming out of the Lord’s mouth is His word. As Hebrews 4:12 tells us: “For the word of God is living...