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 (Revelation 1:9)
I don’t even remotely equate myself with the Apostle John, who walked and talked with Jesus, but all of us in Jesus can claim the same familial relationship with the Lord, but perhaps not the “tribulation” that comes with it, as John was, according to Bible scholars, persevering through hard labor at his old age in the mines on Patmos, a small island in the Aegean Sea southwest of Ephesus and between Asia Minor and Greece. His crime was preaching the word of God and testifying to the life and claims of Jesus as pastor of the Ephesian church. Peter had asked the Lord out of turn what would happen to John (John 21:21), and now we know.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, (Revelation 1:10)
Much time had passed since those days on the sandy banks of the Sea of Galilee to where he was now on the rocky crags of Patmos, but it didn’t matter, because he was in the Spirit, and it was the Lord’s day (not necessarily Sunday). Anywhere we might be can be a place of fellowship with our Lord. No magical translation is necessary. It can be in an easy chair, on the morning drive into work, or pulling weeds. There are no restrictions to how much time you spend in the Spirit by the way. It would do us good to be “so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.”
But suddenly he was jarred by a loud voice behind him. The word loud is mega from which I assume we get megaphone. It was more than loud, actually, like the blare 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.” (Revelation 1:11)
The reference to a “book” actually meant a scroll, and the word “it” seems to indicate this singular scroll would make the rounds. It would become far more than a screed to underperforming churches, but a roadmap to when, where, and how the Lord would return to the earth, and how we’d be spending eternity.
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 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. (Revelation 1:12–13)
When John turned to see who was speaking, he saw seven lamp stands representing the seven churches (and possibly their pastors) and a man clothed like a priest standing within them. But when John turned it was as if he had been translated into another dimension, because the voice transformed into the sound of rushing waters (Revelation 1:15) and the colors of his vestments were “other worldly.”
As we read this “scroll,” we’ll always have to stop and ask ourselves what we’re seeing really means. It’ll be logical, many times on steroids, but not too far off the reservation. In other words, our mindset needs to be that the Lord would never try to confuse us and include something in his word that would be inscrutable. The scroll, after all, was meant as clear counsel for the seven churches in its opening three chapters, and from there, to unfold, “the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.”(Revelation 1:19)
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