Stop Being Afraid

Also children in kindergarten and first grade are welcome to primary church You know, it's funny how the effect that Revelation I know I'm this is the third if you're visiting for the first time that third one in the series I think might take a year or two But the last after the last service someone who's been a member of this church for quite a long time It came to me and said you know, I've been a preposterian mark for my whole life and I was tempted to shout out Hallelujah the last service No Now you you would be glad to know many of you that she did not succumb to that temptation But we're making progress and so why don't I pray and we will jump right in to the book So father, I just prayed this morning that you would come and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the death I pray that as we consider this book this passage this morning that you would raise us above our pettiness Raise us above our fears raise us above that which would separate us from you and one another and give us a grand Vision of Jesus himself. I pray that you would be in my head and in my thinking in my heart And I'm understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking in Jesus name. We pray these things a man and a man Just a couple of business notes if you all all of the audio for the sermons is on our website as well as the slides And the reason I'm telling you that is because even the Those complainers in my family say that I talk too fast That was a joke too, but in any rate I came home yesterday after spending several hours at church and Judy said how to go and I said I could do three sermons on what I have to do tomorrow morning And she said why don't why don't you just do that and I said because I just spent the past five hours making it into one and So the point is I'm gonna have to keep going at a good clip and if you want the slides You can download them from the website and also we're playing around with a screencast Which is actually will be a screencast of the service being on YouTube There's two of them the last two are there already and so we figured out we can do it right through our sound system here So with all of that said we're looking at revelation one nine through 20 and this passage is a bit of an introduction as well Before we jump into the churches and I'm not gonna review everything. I did two whole Weeks of introduction, so you might want to if you're new to this you might want to revisit that There's just a couple things. I'll point out to you is just one you'll consider this picture if You're listening on audio. It's a picture of a dragon eating a city Now with no context What does that mean? You know or if you if you you found this picture a thousand years from now and You found this picture of a dragon eating a city and you took it literally and you look back at time What would it mean? Well does it help you understand what this picture means if I tell you that it was published on July 1st of 1997 That's the day that communist China took over Hong Kong Knowing that information does the picture make a bit of difference? Well that I mean, but it but it not just makes a big difference It tells you all of these things and it tells you what the what the people thought of the communist Chinese and how they thought It was going to affect their city and all of these things and the point is is that when you use pictures You can actually say a lot more sometimes If John had to write out the book of Revelation in Doctoral proposition it my guess is it would be as big as the whole Bible is now But he uses pictures and since he uses pictures he's able to say a lot more so keep that in mind the other thing I just wanted to remind you of is the interpretive lens we're using or the approach that we're using remember last week I said there's generally four approaches that people use. There's the historicists There's a futurist as a preterist. There's an idealist one of them looks at the book of Revelation Is there's everything is in the past one says that everything is in the future and the other two or somewhere in between And I told you that we wouldn't be using any of those I mean there is some truth to those to all of them The the approaches we looked at but that's not the lens that will drive us and the lens that will drive us is going to Simply be this gospel what I'm calling a gospel centered approach And it's the same approach at least that I use when I preach from any book of the Bible In other words, whether you're looking at Genesis or Exodus or first or Samuel the question is what is this book say about the person in work of Jesus, how is it pointing us there if Jesus is the the culmination of everything that the Bible is about How is this book teaching us that how is it building upon that same with the book of Revelation? How is the book of Revelation helping us to understand more effectively the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf and as it applies to the world around us Okay, so with all of that said we have three points today The first point we're going to look at is John's commission. He's actually commissioned to write something Okay, the second thing we'll look at is John's vision John has a vision this morning At least in the passage and the last thing we'll look at is John's confidence In other words, John has given this vision and he doesn't respond to it very well and what ultimately gives him confidence to go ahead and finish the book What what gives him confidence to keep writing? So those three things John's commission John's vision and John's confidence Okay, let's look first at John's commission Let me read this to you. It says I John your brother and partner and the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus Was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus So what's going on here the first thing notice is he says I John your brother and partner Now remember this is on a apocalypse. It's a prophecy But it's also a letter and generally speaking when an apostle writes a letter. They're not that touchy-feely In other words when Paul writes a letter. He says Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ I mean he's letting them know right up front that I'm writing you a letter that bears the authority of God because I am an apostle John on the other hand doesn't do that here He writes them. It's his John your brother and Partner now why is he doing that? One simple reason maybe it you remember John was the disciple whom Jesus loved he made at the end of the day He just may have been a little bit more touchy-feely than Paul. I'm guessing that's the case On the other hand He's really making an attempt to identify with the people to whom he's writing in other words He's not writing them as an apostle who's coming down with new information from on top of the mountain He's writing them as as someone who shares in their suffering who is going to Tell them what Jesus has revealed to him for them So he says he's their brother and their partner and he mentions after that in Three things in which he's their brother and partner He says the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance and don't miss the part that it says that are in Jesus In the Greek there's only one article there and in other words the three things Tribulation kingdom and patient endurance are meant to be taken together Because they all they're all dependent upon one another and in other words if there's persecution going on The only reason there's persecution and tribulation for Christians is because of their Christians at least in the Roman Empire and John says I'm a party to that But also I'm a party to the patient endurance and I'm a party to this thing called the kingdom because what John is gonna Try and help us make sense of in the book of Revelation is on one hand You know Paul says we're co-airs with Christ. We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies on one hand on the other hand The emperor is like killing people So how do we make sense of that? What does it mean to reign with Christ on one hand and on the other hand to live in a pretty gritty environment a pretty hard place and John sort of tells us right there He says I'm your partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance which are in Jesus just as a side note A lot of the lot of different traditions make a big deal about tribulation is there going to be a great coming Tribulation at least according to this passage and it's the same word that's used in the rest of the New Testament John's opinion is that there's the tribulation is right now That the end times the hardness is happening right now. Now will there be some other greater tribulation? I don't know to be honest with you But from John's perspective perspective right here is that things are hard right now that the end times Which started at the coming of Jesus the first time Are going on right now and he is their partner in it So what else is going on? He says I was on the island of Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus We know from the secular historian Eusibius that John was on the island of Patmos and he was there because what he says we're preaching the word of God and the testimony Of Jesus and we also know that the mission starting in 92 AD Up the Annie as far as persecuting Christians and the question is why didn't he person kill John? All the rest of the disciples were were martyred according to tradition. Why was wasn't John? Killed and the answer I think is in the word martyred and In other words, we can only speculate why he was exiled and not just flat out killed and the best speculation is that they didn't want to make a martyr out of him They don't want to give him more fame So what's the best thing to do instead of making him into a martyr? They just put him on this island called Patmos and the aisle Patmos was just it was exiled it wasn't prison So oftentimes you see pictures of John in prison. He were writing or the Apostle Paul was John was on he was just on an island as sort of rocky Island where he was free to come and go but it was only 10 miles from one end to the other so he was there and So he's on the aisle of Patmos he was exiled because of his preaching apparently because of the his testimony of Jesus he wouldn't stop The one thing I want to make sure you don't miss on this is that phrase in Jesus That we tend to think of tribulation and trials and endurance as being outside of Jesus that Jesus needs to help me with them And what you're going to see over and over in the book of Revelation what you're going to see over and over this morning is Is that Jesus is sovereign or Jesus is in control of all these things? So if there is tribulation it is not outside of Jesus control if there is trial if there is patient endurance to be had it is in the Context of his Lordship and reign over us as king. So what do we have next? Verses 10 through 11 John says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying right what you see in a book And send it to the seven churches again I think every slide that I'm giving you I could do a whole probably 45 minutes on you're gonna get 45 seconds right now What I want you to just notice on this one is he says right what you see If you read through the book of Revelation without being careful you can it's easy to miss things because I don't know if you've ever seen those Where they'll put up words backwards and you look at them and you can read them because your brain switches them When you read the book of Revelation you got actually go closely because we tend to think right what you hear I'm gonna dictate a letter to you right here. He doesn't say that. You got to pay attention. He says right what you see Because what's important in the book of Revelation are all these images that are kind of come up and he says right Where you see in a book and send it to the seven churches and again? We're gonna do at least one sermon on every one of the seven churches But what I wanted to point out to you here is just this is the number seven Remember what the number seven represents in the Bible Generally speaking it represents completeness. It represents the fullness of something So if Jesus has seven eyes that means he sees everything If he has seven horns that means he's all powerful and so by addressing the seven churches Most people think I think what he's getting at is he's addressing all churches that these seven churches represent every Church through through for all time Because what he could have done he could have he could have written to the eight churches that are an azure minor or nine or ten He could have pushed it a little bit and said to the seven churches and Galatia to the seven churches and Philippe Philippe to to all these other places He didn't for some reason he picked seven churches and that's going to become important later on when we find out what's going on with these churches So as we continue on the next thing it moves right into John's vision So you have this setup where he says I heard this voice like a trumpet Behind me saying right and by the way the this voice like a trumpet in the New Testament at least the trumpet always sort of is a sign of the End times it's the coming of the day of the Lord when you hear the trumpet sound That's when you ought to be worried and so John hears the trumpet and he has to turn around Which I want to make sure you get that as well. He and he sees something and the question is what does he see? And what makes John's vision different in the book of Revelation then say Peter's in the book of Acts or Paul's If they're sort of caught up in heaven or they're caught up in this grand thing John if you remember from from the letters first John and even from a skull so John's really big on touching and In the physical aspects so in John's vision he has to actually turn around to see and later on We're going to see that that John is touched by someone and so it isn't just this ecstatic thing in his head Something is happening been revealed to him and what is it that he sees? Well If you see with only your eyes you see one thing So John turns around and if he only saw with his eyes he would see something like this That's a fresco from Italy, I believe you know He would see a man with a golden robe and and a sash around him And he would have seven stars in his hands and he would have a big sword coming out of his mouth And he would have woolly white hair and it would be sort of odd if you think about it If he only saw with his eyes And yet if you see with your heart if you see with with the heart that has eyes to see you see something not Not completely different because he sees that picture but the picture says something else and what the picture is is a realization of all the old testament promises So in other words instead of listing out all the old testament promises remember we talked about last week that all the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus Instead of listing those out what John sees is a picture And the picture tells him all he needs to know about the whole Bible basically but especially the old testament as it works its way Forward to this person and work of Jesus So what does he see? The first thing it says he says then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands So immediately from this point on were in the old testament That all of these images come directly from the old testament so the thing is he says I turned and I saw the Seven golden lampstands were the golden lampstands is found in Exodus 25 and Exodus 35 that should be 35 17 Where God tells Moses to make one singular golden lampstand to be in the temple when it was in the tabernacle ultimately it was in the temple That's in chapter 25 Exodus and chapter 35 this guy Bezzalel is commissioned to make it and so he makes one golden lampstand and his golden lampstand would be placed in the inner depths of the temple and it was the only light in the temple And the lampstand by the way bore light it didn't produce the light but it was a holder of the light it was the only light in the temple and that light came to represent God's presence among Israel Can you think of anyone else who said I am the light of the world? Right Jesus said that but it also came to symbolize God's empowerment toward for Israel to carry out their blessing to the world if you look at Zechariah chapter 4 that basically what's happening here is the one lampstand that represented Israel and represented God's presence among Israel is now turned into seven lampstands that is no longer just one but there is seven And we're going to find out later exactly what those seven lampstands represent but among other things they represent the fact that God dwells among the churches and God dwells not just with his people Israel but that somehow has been expanded that his presence is not just in the temple any longer but it's somewhere else and we'll look at that what else is he see he says in verse 13 he says in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robe with a golden sash around his chest And if you remember what this phrase son of man sounds like in ancient Near East the most presumptuous thing you could call yourself would be the son of man from any any any any particular religious tradition but especially from a Jewish one and that comes from the book of Daniel and Daniel we read it this morning Mike read it as a call to worship in chapter 7 Daniel says and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom won that shall not be destroyed Okay so think of how this vision starts that John turns around and he sees he's golden lampstands and he looks up and notice what he does not say he's not say Jesus my old buddy remember I'm the one whom you loved my pal your pal he doesn't say that John is immediately struck by what he sees and he says I saw one like a son of man and the one who is like a son of man is the one who is given dominion by God himself by the ancient of days was given dominion over every tribe tongue and nation and they will come to him and they will worship him and he is sovereign over all of them he's been given that by the ancient of days and John says the first thing I turned I turned and that's what I saw and not only that but he was clothed with a long robe that's the danger seven I just read with a long robe and a golden sash around his chest I hate to say it but what you wear is important when he looks around and he's one like the son of man on one hand that connotes this one has been given all power and authority on another hand the only people who would wear robes would either be priests or kings and we don't know which one but what makes sense of the outfit is the golden sash because in ancient areas if you wore a sash typically to work you would wear it around your waist and remember I don't even know what the things that they look sort of like a dress but men wear it but it's not a guilt you always see in the pictures that when they would work in the fields they would pull up their skirt and tuck it in to the waistband and when you finished with work when you were completely done you could take that waistband off and you put it over your shoulder you put it across your chest because you weren't working anymore so what is it saying he says I saw one like the son of man he was dressed like a priest or a king and he had this golden sash and it wasn't around his waist it was around his chest it was around his chest because apparently whatever his job was whatever his task was is completely and utterly finished that the work of this son of man the work of this priest king is completely finished and remember we told you over and over again in the book of Revelation what you're going to see is John pointing us to or Jesus through John pointing us to the fact that his work was completely and utterly finished on the cross that on his cross and by virtue of his resurrection he is completely conquered sin and death and it is done everything else is just the working out of the details that's what John sees also if you want to study more later there's a lot of this particular part of the vision that comes from Daniel chapter 10 the next part it's easy to read over this and think it's about his hair due it says the hairs of his head were white like wool like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire so what is this telling us you know on one hand people say well of course it's it you know people with white hair are older and therefore wiser and so it's pointing to the wisdom of this one called the son of man or it says his hair was white like snow and it's so it's pointing to the purity of the son of man and there may be some truth to that but if you're consistent with where all this stuff is coming from much of it from Daniel it's saying something a lot bigger than that even Daniel chapter seven nine this is before the son of man has given stuff it's just a picture of the ancient of days and Daniel says as I looked thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat his clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames and its wheels were burning fire so this one that he's like the son of man he has dressed like a priest his work is completed could it get any could the vision get any bigger could it get any more scary for John because one like the son of man it's pretty that's pretty big I mean the only other way that you could sort of outdo the son of man with maybe to be the ancient of days and so what are we saying here what is John seeing I think he's saying this the Jesus is also the ancient of days are he certainly equal to the ancient of days in other words Jesus is God he's just not one who is sent by God because when you look through the old testament you see some visions that are like this and its messengers from God but this one is no mere messenger this is actually God himself he's not just one like the son of man he's also like the ancient of days who has all power and all authority that's going to be huge because remember what this book is about in many ways is comforting people who are being afflicted and who need comfort and the only way you can have comfort is if you know that there's someone who is absolutely in charge of everything and knows every hair on your head and every breath you take so that's what John is getting at I believe versus 15 and 16 I wish I had an hour right now since his feet were like burnish bronze refined in the furnace and his voice like the roar of many waters the reference to his feet could come from Daniel remember the kingdoms of this world have feet that are made of iron and clay and because their feet are iron and clay they can't bear the weight of responsibility they can't bear the weight of what's put upon them so they fall to pieces but not the son of man the son of man's feet are are burnished bronze purified in the fire you also see this kind of imagery in the book of Ezekiel and especially his voice like the roar of many waters notice it says in his right hand this is a side note he held seven stars what does he mean there? well later on in this passage we're going to see he says specifically the stars are this on the other hand when you read anything that John writes like the gospel of John oftentimes he seems to use things in two different ways or he tends to use one image to make two or three different kind of points and it's just interesting here at this point when he talks about the seven stars because we're moving toward showing this one who is like the son of man that is Jesus himself being sovereign being in charge of all things and in the ancient Near East according to the Hebrews and according to the Romans and the Greeks there were only seven planets in the solar system and they called them stars that was before Pluto was added I guess and then got ditched so there is a sense here in which he holds the seven stars in his right hand according to the Greeks and according to the Romans the stars were what ran the universe for people who maybe these days actually follow horoscopes and things this may in fact be saying that not only do the stars not run the universe but Jesus is the one who rules the stars that you look to the stars you look to the creatures for advice you look to the creatures for how to run your life and Jesus himself he's actually holds the stars in his very hand what else does he do it says that from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength that reference to the mouth and the two-edged sword probably comes from somewhere in the Psalms there's a couple of different places and where it says his face was shining like the sun in full strength there's no greater blessing in the Old Testament at least or curse I guess then to have God's face shining upon you all right number six Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you well only if God intends the bless you is that a good thing because if you're not right with God and he shines upon you then you disintegrate memor Isaiah said that what was me I am becoming undone and John's loads all these images in there and all to tell us and point us to this whole idea of this one like the son of man like the ancient of days Jesus himself being the culmination of all these things in the Old Testament and that leads us to John's response to his confidence in other words what is John's confidence he sees one thing what he sees or all these images from the Old Testament combined in one person that is Jesus and what is his confidence going to be because we're going to see in a minute he becomes very afraid well what you see in this part of the passage is Jesus describes himself if you want to know what Jesus is about just listen to what he says about himself in other words we can you could interpret what I just told you maybe any number of ways I think the Old Testament is the best way to do it but this part is hard to do anything but listen to Jesus and so what happens here 17-8 John says when I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead now that shouldn't surprise us if you're familiar with the Bible because in the Old Testament basically what happens here with John is what scholars call sort of a fourfold prophetic pattern but there's a pattern it's the same way every single time a prophet gets new revelation of what is the pattern so basically this the prophet has a vision of something some kind of heavenly vision goes on he falls on his face in fear he's strengthened by heavenly being and then finally he receives further revelation that happens in Daniel 10 by the way it happens in a few other places in the Old Testament and it makes sense I mean if God if someone wants to God wants to reveal something through a prophet and he's just laying there as if dead he's got to do something so he helps him up and he helps him to continue and recommissions him but what is important for us to get is just this is for 17-B and 18 is how does Jesus and Jesus description of himself help John to deal with his fears let me show you what I mean he says but he laid his right hand on me saying fear not in the Greek that says it literally says stop being afraid stop it and what's interesting is remember this grand vision that we just had of Jesus that John can't even bring himself to do anything but just describe his hair was like woes feet were like bronze all these things that same person reaches down and touches John he touches him and he says to him stop being afraid and then he gets in the remedy to fear but before I look at that I need to say something about fear I mean fear at the end of the day is what drives almost every person in this room you're afraid of losing control you're afraid that your kids might not turn out right you're afraid you might have enough money you're afraid that your husband doesn't really love you you're afraid that your wife doesn't love you you're afraid that things that work might go wrong you're afraid you're afraid you're afraid you're afraid and at the end of the day the root cause of fear is ultimately a fear of death whether it's a fear of losing something and it's sort of the death of a dream or the death of what you thought you wanted to have or the death of your control or ultimately death itself and so the only remedy ultimately to fear is someone who could actually conquer death and so John falls down as it dead himself and he is completely and utterly afraid Jesus touches him it says stop being afraid why I'm the first in the last Revelation chapter 1 verse 8 1 verse 8 says I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty and Jesus assisted John stop being afraid I am the first and the last which by the way is another way of saying Alpha and Omega and what is meant by Alpha and Omega is that God is the first and the last he's the beginning the middle and the end that everything remember we looked at Colossians chapter 1 everything was created through him and by him and for him that he's at the root of creation and he will be at the culmination of all that he is doing and he's telling John now John I am in control of all things are you afraid try this on precise I'm in control of everything and we know that the promise of God is that all things work for the good who are called according to his purpose so he says to John I'm the first and the last but then he does something else he says I died I'm the living one I died and behold I am alive forever more so what is the remedy to John's fear remember what it told you in the introduction the first time the introduction the second time it's the life death and resurrection of Jesus he said I lived I died and behold I am alive forever more the only thing that could harm you the only thing that you could justifiably be afraid of is death check this out John not only am I the first and the last that's big but I am the living one I died you saw that but behold now I'm alive forever more I have conquered the only thing for which you need to be afraid and if you don't believe me check this out I even got the keys I hold the keys to death in Hades no one else can send you to your grave without me okay no one else can touch you without first coming through me I have the key to all this the question is do you really believe that church do you believe that about your own fears about your own desire to control your own desire for everything you really believe that God Jesus is the first and the last that it is his life and his death and his resurrection on your behalf that somehow is able to get rid of those fears because what Jesus is saying right now is it should and not only that that he is the one that holds the keys to death in Hades it keeps going doing John's commission is expanded I don't want to show you how to place what we just said he says because of this because I've overcome death because I am the living one because I'm alive forever more and have the keys to death in Hades he says right therefore continue writing and he tells him three things he says right the things that you have seen those that are and those that are to take place after this now in scholarly circles people write spent a lot of time writing about verse 19 of chapter 1 trying to say well that it is the interpretive key of revelation that what he's saying is this as a chronology for example that what he's telling John is to write how the chronology of revelation is going to be is something you're going to write what happened in the past what's going to happen now and then write what happens in the future after all week what I have figured out is if the book of revelation this verse is definitely anything it's not about the chronology I think it's about something else altogether because he's recommissioning John he's saying get up and basically write what I was going to tell you to write and I want you to write that which was in the past that which is in the present and that which was in the future and you remember what we said over and over again you're going to see in the book of revelation is in the past and in the present and the future in other words another way for him to say this might be John right therefore that I've won right therefore that I am winning and right therefore that I will win write the things that have happened my death life and resurrection my victory over sin and death write the things that will are happening right now my victory over sin and death and write the things that will happen in the future my victory over sin and death and all of creation and what do we see next and finally in verse 20 he says has for the mystery of the seven stars and I'm skipping on the seven golden lamp stands he says the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lamp stands are the churches now I can spend a lot of time talking about who are the angels of the churches and at the end of the day no one is sure exactly what he means there because an angel can either be a human messenger or it could be an angel it could be you know the the winged creatures I mean he would be someone and the book of revelation every other place the word angel is used it means the heavenly creature so to be consistent it would be heavenly creatures and the question is why would he say the the churches have an angel well some would say just other places in the New Testament seem to imply that there is at least one angel assigned to each church and they bear some responsibility for what goes on in the church that's one way to look at it another way to look at it is to try and remind the churches that they exist on a different realm that we exist down here oftentimes in sort of the petty and who did this and who did that and who said this to me and who didn't say that to me and I think what John is trying to do or Jesus through John is remind them that you exist up here the churches in a different place than the rest of the world that you exist on the same realm with the angels but what's more important is that he interprets he says the seven lamp stands are the churches why is that such an important thing to get what's important in a lot of ways because it's a connection between Israel of the Old Testament and Israel of the New Testament but for our purposes this morning I wanted to remind you what was said in verse 13 do you remember where this one like the son of man was? John turns around and he sees seven golden lamp stands and now we know it's been revealed to us now we know that the lamp stands are the churches now was this one like a son of man sitting way above the lamp stands was he sitting far away from the lamp stands was he sitting up at the cheap seat safe co-field looking down at the lamp stands the one who is like the son of man was walking in the midst of the lamp stands in other words he's not an absentee landlord when we get to the churches the seven churches and look at we talk about each of those each one of the seven churches the letters to them begin something like this I know I know what you have done I know what's good I know what's bad and this is the reason Jesus knows what is happening in each of the seven churches he knows because he's involved he knows because he walks in the midst of that I think one of the things people in church tend to forget is that very fact that most of us go through life and we assume that Jesus is just somewhere way out there I trust that he's forgiven me for my sins I trust that I believe the right theology but at the end of the day he's way out there and I'm down here in the muck at the end of the day he's seated by the right hand of God the Father and glory and I am down here going through my day-to-day business wondering if I can even pay my bills and what John is saying here what the book of Revelation is saying here is he is not an absentee landlord the reason he knows what's going on in the seven churches is because he is there and get this this is also the reason that Jesus knows what's happening in our church he knows and that should change everything if you thought Jesus is walking in the midst of us I mean think about it you know oftentimes you know in popular culture you hear WWJD what would Jesus do you know what would Jesus did that's actually pretty easy because he's not there and I know why I think Jesus would do this or I think Jesus would do that what I think this is getting us to is something like WWT what if Jesus is there what if Jesus was there what if Jesus when you're out in the narthex or you're at home with your friends and you're tempted to gossip and what if Jesus was there would you still do it or when you're tempted to complain what if Jesus was there would you still do it when you're tempted to do any number of things would you still do it if Jesus was there because you see as we move into the book of Revelation on one hand we see that God is sovereign and we see that Jesus is sovereign on the other hand we see that we bear responsibility and the church is bear responsibility and if they do the right thing they're blessed and if they don't do the right thing then they will be disciplined and the question is how does the fact that Jesus walks in our midst change the way we behave how does it change the way you interact with your neighbor how does it change the way you do anything think about that let me pray for us Father I do pray that as we continue with the series that you would on one hand convict us and draw us closer to you on the other hand I pray that we would be encouraged and engaged and we would look and see the fact that Jesus is the first and the last and that He lived and that He died and He rose again for us and because of that He not only represents us but He promised to be with us and He is with us and I pray that you would just in fact open our eyes to see that in His name we pray, Amen, and Amen. At this point in the service if you're able to stand that ask you to stand and we