I Saw

[phareztamar]

I Saw

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.


John has turned now, to behold the word of God. The well-traveled word of God. For besides an eternity with God, and as God; this word also became flesh and dwelt among us. Starting as a microscopic seed…too small to even see…this word made flesh grew, and was born. He lit the world, was crucified, died, was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day. And now he is glorified, and stands before John. Here for the world, is what John saw:

1. seven golden candlesticks
2. in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
3. And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
Since his disappearance in the mount nearly 2,000 years ago, here is humanity’s first look at Jesus, the Christ of God. Having defeated now, hell and death, and holding their keys. Glorified now, and yet found in the big middle of his seven churches. He is now the word made glorified flesh, and the baptizer of men with the Holy Ghost.

In telling his description, John is holding fast to his purpose…to bear record of three things. This vision of the Lord is the first of those three: to bear record of the word of God. The seven letters are the second of those three: the testimony of Jesus Christ. All of this at our theology quiz, here in the foyer of this great vision.

John gives us a front and center view, of that very light which dispelled the darkness on Day One. The beginning of the creation of God. That word is eternal…and is God. That flesh had a beginning in Bethlehem, in the seed of a woman. John bears witness here, to that eternal word, still shining as the sun in his strength, in the face of the resurrected and glorified word made flesh…Jesus Christ.

The apostle has now borne witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. This while still in the spirit on the Lord’s day, on the exile island of Patmos. But it is at the end of the seventh church letter…immediately following…that this vision really begins. And this is where John will bear witness to that third thing:

All things that he saw.

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven; and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me: which said, come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

So while already in the spirit on the Lord’s day, John is now bid to come up higher. The revelation of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, were aptly given on Patmos. So also in the golden chamber…the Holy of Holies in the wilderness…was the floor still the dust of the earth. But now, John must leave Patmos and enter heaven…for there did the open door lead.

In heaven…through that door…John records “things which must be hereafter”. No dirt floors here. John could never endure this journey, had our Lord not laid his right hand upon him. And before we leave to “come up hither”, may we linger at this nugget for a moment.

In all the greatness of the revelation of the Lord that John saw, one can still find the signature of the Shepherd. Because is it not that same right hand, cumbered with seven stars, that our Lord lays upon John? Sort of like leaving the ninety and nine, for the one.