Text: Revelation 1:1-20

If you were to receive a letter of commendation from a well-known person, you might be inclined to put it in a frame and display it upon your wall, for it would be a treasure to know you were so well thought of by someone you admired. Far more treasured is a personal letter from Jesus to His church contained in the Book of Revelation, especially in light of all the things that seek to break down our confidence, the stability of our circumstances, or even our character.

This letter is the revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave to His servants--to you and me. John is the stenographer taking the letter and the mailman who delivers it. This message examines John’s circumstances as so like ours that we can identify with him, and shows so much of the character and person of Jesus.

What is often overlooked in the Book of Revelation are the personal implications for our lives. It is not a revelation of information or prophecies, but a revelation of Jesus (v. 1). But because of its prophetic nature, it often becomes an object of sensation or speculation.

If you look at the circumstance in which Jesus wrote it, this letter is intended to teach people how to make their life work in the middle of a world that has every kind of challenge. Jesus wants us to see the victory, and to know that He is there at the end, whether it’s the end of time, or the end of your rope today.

The reason Jesus reveals Himself is to help us keep things in perspective “for the time is near” (v. 3). Although these words were written long ago, and generations who believed Jesus was coming soon have passed on, the Lord wants us to gain heaven’s perspective rather than earth’s time-space continuum, which tends to stampede us when distress comes.

• Whatever you’re at the end of--whatever the struggle--it is brief in comparison to what your life is ultimately about. The Lord is not indifferent to your problems, but He wants you to know that your life is not about your present circumstances.
  
  
• He’s here in our interest and He’s committed to seeing us through it all. He gives an incentive: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear…” (v. 3). If you want a regular blessing, read this Book and it will keep your eyes above it all.
  
  
• This signature of Jesus (“He sent and signified it…” v. 1) means this letter is not only personal to us, He’s endorsing everything He says here. Death can’t keep Him down, and when you come to the end, nothing of the death syndrome in your world can keep you down either.
  
  
• He gives us the promise of dominion as long as we walk in worship with Him. He says I’m going to see you through it all. I made you kings and priests unto God (v. 6) We are to be kings who war with victory; priests who, through their worship, draw the authority to function as kings.

1. You can never be in so forsaken a place My love won’t seek and find you (v. 9-10).

At that time, Patmos was a Roman penal colony in the middle of nowhere. You may feel you’re in a place called confusion or despair, or that you’re isolated on an island called rejection. But the Lord says, and John is reporting, Jesus came to me to reveal Himself when I was in the middle of nowhere.

2. You can never be in so bound a state that My Spirit can’t lift your soul with hope (v. 10).

Though John is in prison he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” The “Lord’s Day” can mean the first day of the week or the day of God’s judgment and visitation, the day God comes to change things.

Whenever you feel you’re at the end, you can identify your surroundings and circumstances and say, These are the limits. Or you can transcend those limits by saying, Father God, I come to begin to worship You and get in the Spirit. John is saying what Jesus wants us to see: Got a problem? Get in the Spirit!

3. Your history can’t be written until I, Jesus, have the last word (v. 11).

However we would want to write about things as they are, Jesus is here as the One who is the Creator and Consummator of all things, as well as the Redeemer of everything in between. Jesus is telling us that it’s not the end of the story yet; He’s going to write the end His way, no matter what the circumstances are, and you won’t be the loser.

4. You may think you know Me well, but you haven’t seen anything yet (v. 12-16).

No one knew Jesus better than John; he was with the Savior during His earthly ministry, and on the last occasion on which He was on earth. Now John describes seeing the splendor of the reigning Christ, at the right hand of the throne of all power, and he is overcome with His majesty.

When we face times that we think are the end, the Lord says, Lift up your head a little bit higher because I’m greater than you think, more powerful than you think and closer than you think.

5. There is nothing you face that is unanticipated by My plan or unsurpassed by My power (v.15).

Brass in scripture denotes strength. The feet of Jesus, once wounded, have become feet of dominion. Walk in the trail of the One who has gone through the fire, and with Him, you discover what He found going through it.

At the cross, Jesus faced His greatest sense of aloneness (“My God, why have You forsaken Me?”), followed the next moment by His greatest abandonment to trust and rest in the Father (“Into Your hands I commit My Spirit”). It was the Father’s plan and power that brought Him through. He says, That’s how My feet got this way; I want you to walk with Me and learn the same thing.

When you go through the fires that make you want to say, “I’m at the end of my rope and God’s not even in this situation anymore,” the Lord says: If you will just abandon yourself and trust Me, then you will go through that fire and find a pathway of dominion like My Son’s.

6. Just when Jesus seems to be out of reach to us, He says to us, I have you and your circumstance firmly in hand (v. 16, 17, 20).

In Jesus’ right hand were stars–people in whom the radiance of the kingdom of God is invested--a radiance intended to light the darkness of the world (Philippians 2:15). The same right hand reaches to John. Not just a few select people, but all of us are in His hand.

Hear the Word of the Lord: the promise of His presence, the certainty of His victory in us. Whether it’s the end of time or the end of your rope, the Savior says:

• I’m here, no matter how remote or out of touch it seems;
• Whatever you think I may have been like in times past, you ain’t seen nothing yet;
• I’m here in the middle of your circumstance to put My hand on you, to show My glorious power, to walk you through the fire;
• I’ve come to show you that compared to what your life is ultimately about, this is only a brief time, and I’m going to take you through it.

220. He Is Here, Hallelujah
586. He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands
528. My Faith has Found a Resting Place
544. “My Faith Still Holds
537. He Who Began a Good Work in You