Dennis Tuuri

# Revelation 1:9-18

First chapter of the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 1, beginning reading in verse 9. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Revelation chapter 1. I’ll begin reading at verse 9 and read through verse 18.

I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, “I am Alpha and the first and the last. And what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamus, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with the garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with the golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice is the sound of many waters. 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. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, “Fear not. I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death.”

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate this text for understanding. And let us make this prayer through song.

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The watching eyes of the servant of God—or the servant as watcher. As we go through these first three chapters of the book of Revelation, the basic theme is that we’re called as servants to the Lord Jesus Christ and called to be patient, that is persevering, in the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want today’s sermon to really deal with a lot of the way the centrality of the purpose for God calling us.

What is the particular role of the church in the context of the world and your individual role as well in the context of the church? Today’s sermon, today’s text has added very much a stress upon our purpose. The very core of our existence is addressed by, I think, as Christians, addressed in this particular text. So we want to go through it, but I want to first review a little bit of what we’ve talked about last week as we read and talked about the implications of the verses just previous to the verse we’ll talk on today.

We said that after this kind of preamble in the first few verses of the first chapter of Revelation, John then begins specifically what some would refer to as the first vision of John, and he says that I John and he talks about the reception of the vision and the reception of the vision is particularly in the context of the worship service. That’s what we said. The scriptures say that John was in spirit on the Lord’s day and we talked about that a little bit. Now John also says at the beginning of this section that John is our brother and companion in tribulation, kingdom, and patience.

And I talked about the definite article in front of tribulation. So he’s the companion in the tribulation which was the great tribulation spoken of leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And then we said that actually we can see in this though a summary sense of the life of the Christian. That life is one that does have a degree of tribulation, although not as the recipients of this letter—the original recipients—that we’re in.

We’re not in the great tribulation anymore. But we always have trials and tribulations. That’s a mark or an element of the Christian life. But the second thing that John says is he’s also the companion and brother in the kingdom. We’re in the kingdom now. And then third, this calls us to perseverance. So the basic theme that John lays out for us is tribulation, kingdom, perseverance. We said that’s the very three things that dispensational Christianity today denies.

It denies the fact that the great tribulation occurred in the past or that the church will go through the tribulation. They deny the fact that the kingdom is now a present reality. And they really deny the need for perseverance. I should just make one clarifying point of that. I mentioned that briefly last week. And what I mean by that is that the idea that once saved always saved is half true. But it’s not true if what we mean by that is that we don’t have to persevere in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and bearing testimony and witness to Christ in our lives.

The scriptures teach that we need to persevere. God preserves us. Yes. Once saved, always saved. Yes. But you will manifest that through a continual perseverance in life. And evangelical Christianity today tends to deny that fifth point of tulips—perseverance of the saints. Okay. So John said that and he also said though that he received this vision. He was in the spirit on the day of the Lord.

Turn if you will to Revelation 4.

And we have kind of a similar passage. Revelation 2 and 3 are the letters to the seven churches. And in 4 he begins the heavenly—it’s in my version of the King James. It actually says heavenly worship at the front of that. In any event, in verse one of chapter 4: “And then 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 show thee things which must be hereafter and immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven.”

Do you see the correlation? John hears the trumpet voice again in chapter 4 and he is in the spirit. What does he mean? He means he is ushered into the worship service in heaven. The door is open. He ascends just as we ascend at the beginning of worship. And as he ascends, he’s in spirit. Okay? It’s the day of the Lord. So in spirit seems to have reference primarily to the worship that is going on in heaven and that we enter into in corporate worship.

We see in chapter 4 and 5 of Revelation a picture of what that worship is about. We see the angels and angelic beings arrayed around the throne room of God. And that’s the company of angels that as we read in Hebrews 12, we are ushered into the context of in holy worship. We’re come to Mount Zion. What happened on Mount Zion? The trumpet voice was blown. Moses went up to get the law of God by which kingdom reign occurs.

We’re called to the heavenly Jerusalem. We’re called to the company of angels. And that word means the festal arrangement—panaggeria. It’s a term that means the angels are in festal array around God. The same way the hosts of God in the wilderness arrayed around him in very specific order. So when John is ushered up in chapter 4, we see what we are ushered up to in Hebrews 12—the company of angels.

And we talked about the glory cloud. You know, in various portions of the world where locusts are a big problem, you can see these locusts coming a long way away, but you think it’s a cloud. You see this dark kind of cloud in the horizon and it comes closer and you realize it’s bugs. It’s locusts that form up this cloud. Well, in the scriptures we said that the glory cloud—the cloud of the Lord—that he comes to earth in particular times and for judgment purposes, it looks like a cloud a far way off but really what it’s composed of is these angels, myriads upon myriads of angels. So this glory cloud environment of God is pictured for us in Revelation 4. And that is what John is talking about here in chapter 1 as well.

So the worship service of the church is an ascension to the throne. That’s why we do the Assure Korday—lift up your hearts—ascent into that glory cloud environment created by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the one who creates that environment of arrayed people around God. Augustine said that the Spirit is the bond of the trinity and, basically, the Spirit arranges, calls effectually God’s people to be part of that host by which He is worshiped. Spirit’s like a matchmaker.

Genesis 6: when the ungodly marriage is being entered into, God’s Spirit strove against men. He strove against the ungodly alliances or covenants between God’s seed with the seed of the world as it were. So the Spirit brings together proper seed and is involved with the arrangement of God’s people, marrying them as it were to the great Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we said that, additionally, John says in—additionally to understanding the arrayed angels in which he is involved with in the worship of the church—he also says that it was the day of the Lord. He doesn’t say the Lord’s day; it’s the same term in the Greek. And we just mentioned that it doesn’t say I was in the spirit on the Lord’s morning or the Lord’s hour or the Lord’s two hours. Yeah, it’s generally today in evangelical Christianity—again, the Lord’s day becomes like—I’m listening to a radio station radio talk show on KPDQ and they’ll say “this is the Bible study hour,” “the Christian hour,” and actually it’s 15 minutes. You know, “hour” can refer to that kind of general portion of time, but it’s kind of deceptive.

Well, that’s what people have done to the Lord’s day today, mostly. One day out of seven we’ve turned it into a morning, maybe, and then the afternoon we go and recreate or do our shopping, whatever it is, you know. We have fun apart from the people of God, out in the rivers, everybody else, whatever it is. But see, it’s the Lord’s day—whole day, one day out of seven. This is a very important text. Maybe I should have spent a whole week just talking about the Sabbath implications of this text. Very important text for saying that in the New Testament, there is still a day out of the week that is distinguished as the Lord’s day. Okay?

So that’s what John talks about. Then he talks about the trumpet voice. On in spirit on the day of the Lord, the Lord’s day, he hears this voice like a trumpet. And we said last week that this trumpet voice—as I mentioned earlier—mentioned at Sinai. What’s going on at Sinai? Remember, they’ve been delivered from Egypt, Passover, and they’re going to receive the Ten Commandments. What is the Ten Commandments, kids? Is that just a list of things that tell us not to do? Is that what Moses goes up to receive? Is just something saying don’t do this? No. It’s the word of God. It’s the same word that Jesus goes up in chapters 4 and 5 to receive from the Father’s hand.

It’s the king’s law book and it involves not just what you can’t do, but says, by implication, what you can do. It’s not just curses; it’s blessings. It’s history. It’s the kingdom rule. See, as God’s people are delivered, they’re given kingdom rule by God on Sinai. Well, they’re too afraid to go up there and meet with him to receive it. They don’t like the sound. It scares them a lot because it should scare sinful men.

So Moses has to go up and ascend to receive the book of rule, so that people will take that book and go and dispossess those ungodly Canaanites. Well, in the same way, this voice—trumpet voice—sounds and it’s going to sound again in chapter 4 and Jesus is going to be pictured ascending Mount Sinai as the greater Moses and he takes the book of rule and he’s going to give it to the people. Right? Daniel 7, he receives this kingdom.

Later on in Daniel 7, the kingdom is given to us, the church, and by AD 70, it’s all been completed and reign is delivered into the hands of the church. We got the book now—rule. So that trumpet voice brings all that into mind.

Jericho was burned totally. Rest of cities weren’t. Jerusalem—here’s the picture of the greater Jericho destroyed by the greater Joshua. There’s trumpet blowing. The seven angels are going to sound those trumpets out. Jerusalem’s going to fall. Jerusalem’s going to be burned. But all the land—what’s the first picture of the conquest of all the world—that all the world will be conquered because the trumpet also blows in Jubilee. What was Jubilee about? Evict the bad guys. Jubilee, you go back and possess your own land. And the picture is the return of land to its owner. Satan is kicked out with the blowing of this trumpet. He’s evicted and Jesus moves in. And Revelation is about that, too. And this vision John’s going to get about that.

We come to worship. It’s about that. We receive the kingdom rule. We receive the guarantee. And as we preach forth the word and worship on the Lord’s day and then throughout the week, culture falls and changes and new Jerichos are conquered and Ais are conquered and city after city are conquered through the preaching of the gospel, and Satan and his hosts are evicted from land and God’s people are established, all based upon the atonement.

Ram’s horns blow. Silver trumpets, glorified ram’s horns blow. God’s people are summoned together by the silver trumpets in Numbers 10. Remember? And we come together, you’re here, Lord, to worship. And the trumpets are blown over the sacrifices. It says in Numbers chapter 10, silver glorified trumpets. And then it also says those same trumpets are blown and we leave this place, commissioned by God to go out and make war.

Chapter 19 of Revelation, Jesus is going to ride out. And what comes out of his tongue? Two-edged sword. He’s coming out of the sanctuary now. And we’re following him out of the worship service as we go into the world to conquer. Well, that’s all what’s contained in what we talked about last week, the introduction to this particular vision.

These things. Now, moving on to the text today, I want to particularly focus on chapter—on excuse me—on verses 12 and 13 where John turns around to see the greater overseer of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he turns to see the voice that he hears. Hearing first, sight second. And then we have a description here of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this description that goes on in verses 12 and following. There are three things basically.

First, Jesus’s position relative to the church is described. Second, Jesus’s clothes are described. And third, Jesus’s body is described. And we’re not going to talk about Jesus’s body till next week. We’re going to talk today about the position amongst the church. And then his clothes.

See verse 12: “I turned to see the voice which spaketh me. And being turned I saw”—doesn’t see Jesus first. He sees seven golden candlesticks. So the first observation is that Christ is revealed among the lampstands which are the church. Now we know it’s the church—dropped down to verse 20: “The mystery of the seven stars which thou seest on my right hand of the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou saw are the seven churches.”

These are real churches. The churches Ephesus, Smyrna, etc. And it—what we are, we’re a lampstand for God. Christ is revealed first of all by a perception by John of the church. Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it? Doesn’t see Jesus at first. Sees the seven candlesticks. And the church is supposed to minister Christ to the world. We’re supposed to be the vehicle by which people are brought to a knowledge of the Savior. And frequently, that’s the way it works. People see the church and then they’re brought through the preaching message of the church and the ministry of the church to a revelation of Christ.

Now, I need to say something about these candlesticks. That’s King James version. They’re not candlesticks like we think of them. They’re more lampstands would be a better way to put it. What it is—there’s the picture here is the lampstand in the tabernacle, which we’re going to talk about a lot today. Okay? We’re going to talk about that lampstand. We’re going to talk about the priest’s clothing. That’s basically the two things we’re going to talk about.

So, first, lampstand, Old Testament tabernacle. You go into the holy place, not the Holy of Holies, into the holy place. And on the left hand side, there’s a candlestick or a lampstand would be a better way to put it. And what that is is it’s lamps like Aladdin’s lamp. Remember Aladdin’s lamp? Oil in it. And it sits on top of a holder. Okay? And then in Zechariah, we actually learned that holder isn’t an empty holder. There’s oil feeding up through that into these lamps that are attached to the top of these things with the wick on them. Okay.

So, this lampstand can be taken off by the priest, by the high priest. He can mess with it and trim the wick. My son bought a real nice knife. He collects these things and he got a lighter with it. And we were playing around with the lighter. And the lighter doesn’t work unless you put fluid in the lighter. We’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. That’s the Holy Spirit. But then after you put the fluid in, you light the thing up. It may have a real big flame, too big a flame, or it may not have any flame because you got to adjust the wick that comes up out of the lamp.

Well, the priest, he would go in there to the holy of holies or to the holy place rather, not the holy of holies, and he would trim that wick. See, make it burn correctly. Well, the idea here is that’s what these things are like. It’s like an Aladdin’s lamp on a holder with oil going through it to feed the lamp. Okay?

Now, it’s important because the church is the lampstand in the imagery here and the lamp is the star—star or a light which is the pastors. You see? So there’s a sense in which the whole thing is really the lamp. But if you want to break it off, the church is the stand and the pastors are these seven stars or lamps or lights that sit on the lampstand. Okay. So that’s significant for reasons we’ll get to in a couple minutes.

But just first of all by way of application then we can say that the church is important and in American culture the church doesn’t seem to be very important. The only thing that’s talked about as lights in this world are the individual Christians out in the world. Thousand points of light. But no, there’s a bright beam of lights here in the context of the lampstands and Christ is revealed not in the context of individual lives in this text but stress is placed upon the church as a corporate entity. Okay? It’s important to see that. It’s important to see that. It’s important to understand that the church is important in this whole process.

John Calvin said if you leave the church you leave the source of sanctification. Okay? It’s that important in scripture terminology. We’re going to have people join the church. They covenant—important thing to do. We believe it’s very important in this church. Okay.

**Second observation. The churches are almond trees or watcher trees.**

Well, okay. What are you talking about, Dennis? Let’s look at the scriptural description of the construction of these lampstands. Turn to Exodus 25. Exodus 25. You know, the Old Testament seems so hard for us because even if we read through the Bible a lot, we don’t kind of put it in a context and it just becomes a blur of details here in the book of Exodus. But, you know, it’s really laid out pretty easily in the scriptures.

In Exodus 25, we’ve got the instructions on how to build the tabernacle. And in verse 10, we have the instructions on how to build the ark of the testimony. That’s in the Holy of Holies. And then in verse 23, we have the table of showbread. That’s in the holy place, not the Holy of Holies. It’s on the right hand side. The drawing, the sideways drawing in the bottom of your outline shows this. And they’re not marked as such. But there at the top inside there, that’s the ark of the testimony. The next place down underneath that first little line is the Holy of Holies. There’s a little lampstand to the left. And on the right is the table of showbread.

So the next thing in Exodus 25 is the table of showbread, loaves of bread that represent the 12 tribes of Israel. And then in verse 31, we have instructions on how to build the golden lampstand or candlestick. And then we have the tabernacle itself in 26 onward. So there’s a real logical progression going on here. God says, “Here’s how you’re going to worship me. Here’s the kind of body I’m going to inhabit. Here’s the kind of building I’m going to manifest myself in. And I’m going to have you start with the most important part, the Holy of Holies. Then you’re going to build the stuff for the holy place. And then you’re going to build and continue out and build the rest of the tabernacle.”

You see the progression? Okay. We see that progression in verse 30 that we read about the construction of these lampstands that now John sees in Revelation 1. We should know this, but we don’t. So, we have to review this from the scriptures. He might have read it once or twice. Exodus 25: “Thou shalt set upon the table showbread before me always. And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold. A beaten work shall the candlestick be made. So, it’s golden candlestick. His shaft and his branches, his bowls, his knops. A knop is an ornamental knob or a bud. Unsure of the translation, but it’s like a knob. And his flowers, blossoms, shall be of the same, and six branches shall come out of the sides of it. Three branches of the candlesticks out of the one side, and three branches of the candlesticks out of the other side.

Three bowls made like unto almonds with a knop—ornamental knob or bud—and a flower or blossom in one branch and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch with a knop and a flower. So in the six branches that come out of the candlestick and in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds with their knops and their blossoms. And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same and a knop under the two branches of the same and a knop under the two branches of the same according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.

Their knops and their branches shall be of the same and it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. Thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof, and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.”

Okay, over against it. What does that mean? Over against the showbread. It’s supposed to light up the bread. So, this candlestick is an almond tree is what it is. We just read the description. Got to be made like an almond tree. Okay, there’s a reason for that. But for now, recognize at Exodus 25.

If you were to turn to Exodus 37, that’s where they actually do build it. On your outline, I got Exodus 25 first, the instructions. Exodus 37, where they actually build it. You’ll see that this is an almond tree. Now, the word almond in the Old Testament doesn’t really mean almond. Doesn’t mean anything. What it actually means is to watch or watching. So, what this really means is you’re building a watcher tree, a looking tree.

This is not something, you know, I’m making up or that old Jim Jordan made up and was kind of goofy. No, no, no. You read the theological wordbook of the Old Testament, the standard word for Old Testament words. They’ll tell you the same thing. And they speculate that maybe that’s because the almond tree blossoms in January or February. So, it’s called the waker because it’s like the first, it’s the harbinger of spring, you know, you can watch it and it’s kind of like the waker tree and alertness and watching, etc. But, but everybody knows that this Hebrew word almond means watcher.

So turn to Jeremiah chapter 1 and we’ll read another example of this. Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 10. Okay. So God tells Jeremiah, “I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.”

Verse 11: “Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it.”

Bad translation, “hasten my word to perform it.” Let me read it in the American Standard Version. Jeremiah says, “I see a rod of an almond tree.” Jehovah says, “Thou hast well seen, for I will watch over my word to perform it.” New American Standard: “Lord says to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” NIV: “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”

It’s not a difference of Hebrew words here. It’s better translations because it’s the same word for almond that God uses. It’s the exact same Hebrew word that God says, “I’m watching over my word to perform it.” So really, the best translation would be: Jeremiah God would say, “What do you see?” Jeremiah says, “I see the rod of a watch—watcher tree,” and God says, “You’ve seen right because I’m watching over my word to perform it.” Okay?

Almond trees were watcher trees. That’s their whole point. And so, it makes sense that the candlestick that’s going to shed light over the showbread is a watcher candlestick, essentially, or lampstand. Read a few other verses. You don’t got to turn to these, but I will read a few more to kind of drive this point home.

Jeremiah 31:28: “It shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down.” Remember he had put Jeremiah in chapter 1 over nations to pluck up. Watching over is the picture there. So Jeremiah is that almond tree too. “And to throw down and to destroy and to afflict. So will I watch over them to build and to plant,” saith the Lord.

God’s watching eyes. You know that Bill Gaither song, “God is Watching Over You.” That’s what the almond tree was about. That’s the picture thereof. And that’s what these candlesticks, these lampstands, are all about. They’re watchers.

Jeremiah 42:27: “Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good. All the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword,” watching over them. In this case in Jeremiah 42, for evil.

Our Savior, remember, what did he say? “Watch and pray.” Watch and pray. That was the slogan—what the Christian life is to be like: to watch and pray. Daniel 9: Daniel says, “It’s written in the law of Moses, all this evil’s come upon us. Yet made we not our prayers before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us.”

See, Daniel knew all about this stuff. He knew about the watching—the watching eye of God—over his people. One more reference and I don’t have this one on your outline. 2 Chronicles chapter 16. 2 Chronicles 16 is King Asa, and first he was good, then he turns out bad. Verse 7: Hanani the seer comes to Asa and he says, “Because you have relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.”

See, Asa now earlier had relied upon God and God had delivered him, and later he relies upon the king of Syria—one of these bad deals, these covenants with bad nations—and now it’s not going to work out because he’s not relying upon God. Well, what it goes on to say: “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.

For the eyes of the Lord, here it is—the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Here thou hast done foolishly. Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” And what’s Asa’s response to this good word of Hanani? He gets mad, locks him up. Okay.

The point is that these candlesticks—the picture—the first picture we have here of the church in Revelation, essential to the identity of the church—these lampstands are watcher trees and they are connected to God watching over the world, His eyes running to and fro in the world, and then bringing His word to pass, either to tear down or to plant up.

And Jeremiah, like Aaron—Aaron had a rod that blossomed. He was an overseer too. He had an almond rod, a watching rod that he would employ in the service of God. The church of Jesus Christ is a lampstand. It is a watching tree. It is a beautified lampstand, a beautified almond tree rather. Watch tree, and essential to our being as Christians is that we are supposed to watch over the world and then make prayers to God. Watch and pray. That’s who we are.

See, now in the tabernacle, you had Aaron, rod—almond watcher. You had the lampstands. Then you had the showbread. And then in the midst of all of this, of course, in Revelation, you got Jesus. What are his eyes like? Life. Not going to talk about it much this week, but his eyes were shining flames of fire. Burn a hole right through you, kids. Jesus watches. So the picture is that we watch the world and report.

We report to each other. We report to the pastor if we see things going on the pastors need to know about. The pastor is watching the church as well as the world. He’s making his report to God. Jesus is watching over all of us and He’s interceding for us and He is watching to perform His word in our lives. You see, there’s a whole lot of watching going on in the scriptures there.

Cisco and Ebert played a clip from a movie a year or two ago named Casino. It’s a movie about how the mob used to run the casinos in Las Vegas. And this is based on a true story. The mob really did establish all that. But anyway, Robert De Niro is doing a voiceover as they pan around and show the various workings of the casino. And he’s talking about watching—about how, if I remember it, it’s been a long time since I saw the clip—but the dealers at the tables, they’re watching the girls who are working the crowd. The pit bosses are watching the dealers to make sure they’re not cheating as they’re dealing out those cards.

The floor managers are watching the pit bosses to make sure they’re doing their job right and not skimming off money. They’re watching the dealers who are watching the girls. Then they’ve got general managers who are watching the floor managers watching the pit bosses watching the dealers watching the girls. And then De Niro says there’s the eye in the sky that watches everybody—cameras—and they’ve got a guy’s up there in the control booth watching the whole thing.

You see, well, that’s what it’s like for us. That’s who we are in that chain of watchers—watcher trees. We’re supposed to see things and talk to God about those things. What did you see in your own life, maybe in your family, that you need to report to God and ask for wisdom from? Ask for help. Ask him to build someone up and maybe to bring some judgment against somebody else. Ask him for wisdom on something.

What did you see in your family this morning? What did you see in your workplace this last week? What did you see in your life? What did you see in the governor’s veto proclamation? I saw an attempt to blame Christians for children not getting good health care. Well, won’t get into that now, but if you want to know more about it, I’m going to write something on this. I think Matt’s gonna have put up something about this veto proclamation on the web page. But see, I saw that. I saw the governor and his aid trying to blame the church, you know, for some maybe some damage that’s going to happen to kids’ lives.

I saw that. I have a responsibility to watch for that sort of stuff. You got a responsibility to watch children. You got a responsibility to watch yourselves. You got a responsibility to watch your brothers and sisters, encourage him to righteousness and then report to God what you see as a watching—and it’s an illumination. You see, we’ve got the eyes like Jesus. We got eyes of light. As we watch, we bring light to the world round about us. The church—Jesus Christ is manifested in the context of the church. And the church, this portion of scripture, tells us have a responsibility as watcher trees or almond trees, we’re lampstands.

And you probably didn’t know that before today. See, but it’s important that we understand. We don’t just go to Revelation and say, “Well, what does it mean to me?” No, we ask, “What does it mean to the scriptures? How do the scriptures interpret these things?” And that’s what these candlesticks are. These lampstands are watcher trees. That’s who we are. Okay.

**Third, the church is now both one and many and is now decentralized into churches.**

Small point, but in the tabernacle, there’s a single lampstand. Here we got seven lampstands. There’s a decentralization of the church that’s occurred. Now, this was kind of pictured in the temple. The tabernacle had one lampstand and in the temple there were at least 11 lampstands—bunch of them. Okay. So, that’s going on in a broader sense. And in the church, it’s decentralized now.

Well, you know, that it’s a minor point, I suppose, but it is important. And I’ll look at this a little more as we go to the epistles to the seven churches. There are things in here by church government. These churches are decentralized into church cities, city churches. Okay? They each have a pastor or an angel over them. There’s some implications for that. But in terms of our application today, we want to say we want to see the unity of the church manifested more and more. But we recognize that unity won’t be a complete institutional unity.

There is this differentiation of local churches and particularly city churches in the context of this book. Now.

So another point there is that kids, when in the Old Testament when God’s people go into Canaan, where Jerusalem was, there was a centralized sanctuary. That’s where God had to be. Couldn’t worship in any place but Jerusalem during that period of time. In the New Testament, Jesus’s plan now is across the whole earth that was a picture—a little microcosm of the world in Israel—but now it’s decentralized. There’s churches everywhere, you see. And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. Okay.

**Fourth observation. The churches are to be filled with the Spirit to enable their watching.**

Okay? If Elijah doesn’t put any lighter fluid in the lighter, it’s not going to work. And if Aladdin doesn’t put some oil into the lamp, he can, you know, strike the match to the wick all he wants, it’s going to maybe burn a wick a little bit, but the lamp will not show out light.

Turn to Zechariah chapter 4. And we have another picture of these lamps, lampstands.

Now you’re saying, well, okay, oil—I guess that is a picture of the Spirit—but we have a more direct reference to these lampstands of the Spirit in Zechariah chapter 4. Angel is showing Zechariah things of the night visions and he says in verse 2, “What do you see?” and he says, “Well, I looked and I behold a candlestick lampstand all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it and the seven lamps thereon. And see, this is the candlestick—this is the lampstand of the tabernacle—he’s seeing, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof. And two olive trees by it, which are upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side.”

So he sees the candelabra, as it were, the lampstand, the menorah, and then he sees these two olive trees, right? And says, “What are these?” Okay. And the angel says, “Do you know what they are?” and he says, “No, I don’t know.” The angel in verse 6 says, “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit,’ saith the Lord of hosts.”

This vision of these lampstands being fed by pipes and of these olive trees is a vision of the Spirit, and that’s what the angel interprets the vision to Zechariah. So when we meditate upon our job to be watchers and to shed light in the world, we are told by this text that the basic message there is: not by power or might but by the Spirit of God, which provides that oil to us that we can see effectively and shine, etc. Okay?

Goes on: From there, drop down to verse 9: “Who art thou, oh great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, ‘Grace, grace unto it.’

“Whereas the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hand shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven—these are the eyes of the Lord.

“See, these seven—now these are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” That’s who we are. We’re the eyes of the Lord now, the vehicle for the Spirit running to and fro around the whole earth. Remember Zechariah 1, the call to worship we read? The eyes of the Lord were on out. What do they see? Places at rest. Okay, maybe it’s time to bring him back into captivity. You see how that all works together?

Verse 11: “I answered and I said unto him, ‘What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?’ And I said unto him, ‘What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?’ And he answered and said, ‘These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.’”

Well, it’s a little complicated, but we don’t need to get into it all, but recognize that we have a two-fold picture here. We have the lampstands being fed by pipes. That’s the Spirit of God. We have the olive trees representing the Spirit of God standing there at the door of the tabernacle, the door of the holy place. And those have branches that come out as vehicles for the Spirit. You see? And so what’s going on here is a transmission of the Spirit through God’s means.

And in the context of Zechariah, we had the two prophets Haggai and Malachi who anointed oil that they get from the olive tree—oil communicated through these branches—Haggai and Malachi, who anoint the priest and the king, Jeshua and Zerubbabel. It’s the vehicle of the Spirit. So the point is that in Revelation—other connection, Revelation chapter 11, the two witnesses. And you know, in dispensational theology, it’s going to be two guys you see on cable TV and they get killed, they get resurrected back up. But the text tells us that these two witnesses are the two olive trees.

It’s the Spirit-anointed church who takes the message to the world. It’s the same as the candlesticks. It’s the same as the lampstands. The point of all that is that we must have a firm reliance upon the Holy Spirit as we communicate. The lamps are nothing without oil.

Psalm 127:1: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. Except the Lord keep or watch the city, the watchman watcheth but in vain.” Not enough just to know it’s your task. If you go out and try to do this and aren’t sensitive to the Holy Spirit and grieve the Holy Spirit through sin, you see, the oil can’t get through.

I smoke a pipe. Sometimes you got to clean the thing out or the smoke stops coming. You got to repent of your sins. Your sins grieve the Holy Spirit. Your sins dampen your sensitivity to the Spirit flowing through your pipes. And you lose perspective and you can’t see. You don’t—you’re not bright, and you’re going to call things wrong and you’re going to not do your job right as the watcher of God. You’re going to report bad information back to the chief. Okay? It’s the effects of sin in your life, sensitivity of the Holy Spirit.

**Fifth, Christ’s presence in the church is as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.**

We read here that John says that he sees in the midst of these lampstands one like unto the Son of Man. Now, I’ve got some references there. We won’t look to all of them. But the term “like unto the Son of Man,” the Son of Man is referred to Ezekiel. And there’s a correlation here between Ezekiel and Jesus. Jesus is the greater Ezekiel. And it’s interesting that in verse 3 of Ezekiel 43, Ezekiel says, “This is what I saw according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city.”

Ezekiel came to destroy the city. And then the other reference, Ezekiel talks about prophesying and then somebody dying and Ezekiel sees the reality of what’s going on. Ezekiel is going to destroy Jerusalem. That’s the picture. Jesus, in Revelation, is the greater Ezekiel—like unto the Son of Man—and he’s going to destroy Jerusalem, tear it down through his word. Okay. But ultimately, it’s better to place this reference to Daniel 7 again.

We talked about that earlier because just before this, John had the vision of one coming in the clouds to receive the kingdom. So when we see here that as John turns and he sees Jesus in the midst of the watching lampstand trees, the olive almond trees of the church with the Holy Spirit flowing through them, he sees one like unto the Son of Man. He sees the one who ascended to receive the rule and reign from God and who then makes things happen in the earth. Okay?

So he sees the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who has received a kingdom that shall never pass away and dominion over all men. And when we come to worship Jesus in the context of the church, we worship him as king. He’s got a law. He’s not a buttercup. He’s not easily dealt with. He instructs us to do certain things. He commands us, okay, that we can be confident that he rules over those nations.

He rules over the governor and his aids, we seek to blame Christians for things they didn’t do. See, we don’t got to get too worried about that. We report it. We pray about it. We don’t get too worried because Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But this vision also tells us that Jesus’s presence is among the churches as that of high priest and not just high priest but high priest at rest. A little complicated here. We won’t turn to the text. I’ll give you the summary. You can turn to the text if you like later on this afternoon—to be a good Sabbath day meditation. We talked about these lampstands.

There was a high priest in the Old Testament system of worship in Israel. The high priest had an inner garment of a robe, a linen robe, and he had a belt around that robe. And then he had an outer garment, which we’ll talk about in a minute, and it had another belt higher than this belt. Now, Jesus in Daniel chapter 10 is in a linen robe, girded about the loins. Why is he now—seeing, and by the way, we’ll get to Daniel 10 next week, almost identical description to the description that John sees.

This is a point of difference, though. In Daniel, he’s in a linen robe girded about the waist. Why is he now in Revelation girded about the paps, or around the breast, the chest? Why? Because he’s pulled his belt up. He’s loosened his belt, as it were. He’s not working anymore. To have your loins girded means you’re going to be working. Some of us will go eat a lot of nice food that people prepared this afternoon and some of the men, they’ll eat a good heavy meal and they’ll sit back and they’ll loosen their belt a notch and they’ll relax, you know, sit back. Yeah.

Well, because the work is done. You see, you’re in a relaxing posture or position. Jesus’s belt being up around the waist—girded up here—means he’s at rest.