To the angel of the church of...write. Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14.
 
    When I was a teenager, television had an extremely popular show called Star Trek.  It was about the starship Enterprise, an outer space battleship that roamed the galaxy defending the United Federation of Planets against Klingons and other evil species.  Their ship's captain was a normal human being named Kirk who expressed the typical range of emotions from elation at victory in battle to panic when everything was going wrong.  His subordinate was Mr. Spock, a humanoid with pointed ears who came from the planet Vulcan and was totally devoid of emotion.
 
    A running subplot in nearly every show was Captain Kirk losing his cool in a crisis and Mr. Spock interjecting in a dry tone of voice, "Captain, that is not very logical."  You see, unlike beings from "Vulcan," human beings have two major ways to assess any situation: one is reason and logic, an the other feeling.  Emotions, of course, can be a major protective device for human beings, but they can also lead people to do silly and unproductive actions, as the show often illustrated.
 
    We can illustrate Western logic by the equation: A + B = C.  Everything drives toward the conclusion.  But the Hebrew logic of the Bible is different:  A + B = A!  Hebrew logic returns back on itself.  It is like the notes on a piano.  As you go up the musical scale (do, re, mi, etc.) you keep coming back to the same notes, but they are at a higher, more advanced level than before.  Western logic emphasizes the conclusion, while Hebrew logic stresses the center.
 
    The seven churches seem to be structured along the lines of Hebrew logic: A-B-A.  Jesus does not criticize Smyrna and Philadelphia (the second and the sixth) at all;  Pergamum and Sardis (the third and the fifth) seem to be in serious decline; Ephesus and Laodicea (the first and the last) have similar problems.  The church in the middle--Thyatira--appears to have two phases, and the message to it is the longest.  
 
    The resulting structure is like a seven-branch lampstand with three branches on each side, one in the middle and pairs of branches meeting at the same point on the stem of the lampstand: Ephesus and Laodicea are at opposite ends of the candlestick;  Smyrna and Philadelphia are the next level;  Pergamum and Sardis above them; and Thyatira, the top.
 
    God did not apply Western logic to the churches of Asia Minor.  He cared so much for them that He met them where they were.
 
Lord, I'm so grateful that You can reach me at my level of understanding.

  To the angel of the church...write.  Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14.
 
    While Revelation has many similarities with other ancient apocalyptic books, the letters of Revelation 2 and 3 are somewhat out of character in such a work.  Some scholars suggest that they are "prophetic letters," a type of writing that appears in the Old Testament (2 Chron. 21:12-15; Jer. 29) and early Jewish literature (2 Baruch 77:17-19; Epistle of Jeremiah 1).  Such letters carried a great deal of authority, and people treated them as if they were royal or imperial edicts.
 
    The Roman world had no official postal system, except for governmental business.  Friends who happened to be traveling in the right direction, or designated messengers, carried most letters.  But the empire's superb road system, combined with efficient shipping on the Mediterranean Sea, made travel easier and faster than it had ever been before.  Archaeologists have found evidence of people in Egypt sending letters to Asia Minor and receiving replies in as short a time as 25 days.  That isn't all that much different than today!
 
    Letters almost always introduce an element of suspense.  The envelope gives some idea as to sender and purpose, but the content may still be a surprise.  I have often received letters that look like official business, including a see-through panel. Opening them, I expect a bank statement or official correspondence, only to find another credit card offer or an enticement to enroll in a book club.  I have learned to look at the postage stamp or mark on such correspondence.  If the sender paid full rate, the contents will probably be important to me.  But if the letter went by bulk mail, the contents will most likely be a waste of my time.
 
    Once I received a brown envelope from the Internal Revenue Service, the tax collection office of the United States.  Such letters might as well have black borders, as they usually portend great financial loss to the receiver!  Since I was in school at the time and funds were limited, I opened the letter with a heavy heart.  But to my joyous surprise I found a check inside!  Someone had decided to audit my last tax return and discovered a mistake that I had made to my disadvantage.  Obviously, one has to open a letter to be certain of its contents.
 
    I can imagine the suspense in the cities of Asia Minor as the readers of the Apocalypse came to the part that said, "To the angel of the church of Ephesus, write," or "To the angel of the church of Smyrna, write."  The members of these respective churches must have held their breath as they awaited a message directly from Jesus.  And the collection of letters contained a lot of surprises!
 
     
Lord, I eagerly await instructions through Your Spirit today.  Be straight with me.  I am willing to accept and carry out Your message to me.

The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands.  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.  Rev. 1:20.
 
    Revelation 1:12-20 presents a fantastic description of "one like a son of man" (Jesus) standing in the middle of seven golden lampstands. In verse 20 we learn that the seven lampstands represent seven churches in Asia Minor.  So the key idea in this part of chapter 1 is that Jesus is in close relationship with His churches.
 
    What adds spice to this observation is the fact that the second part of each letter (the description of Jesus) in the two chapters that follow includes characteristics of Him already mentioned in chapter 1.  For example, the letter to Ephesus (Rev. 2:1) describes Jesus as the one who holds the seven stars in His hand (Rev. 1:20) and walks among the seven golden lampstands (verses 12, 13).  In the letter to Smyrna (Rev. 2:18) He is the first and the last, the one who died and came to life (Rev. 1:17, 18).  Then in the letter to Pergamum (Rev. 2:12) He approaches with a sharp, two-edged sword (Rev. 1:16).  So it goes throughout.
 
    In other words, Jesus presents Himself differently to each of the seven churches.  No individual church has the full picture of Jesus.  Respecting the unique needs and characteristics of each church, He is able to adapt to their particular needs and circumstances.  Or put it another way, He offers different strokes for different folks!
 
    These descriptions of Jesus have some incredible implications for everyday Christian life.  For one thing, He knows all about each church (Rev. 2:2, 9. 13, etc.), even before they are aware of His presence.  And He knows everything there is to know about me, even before I tell Him!  The truth about me is safe with Him.
 
    Since He already knows, He can approach each one of us in just the way we need Him most.  Jesus respects our uniqueness, He is aware of our different personalities and needs, and He graciously deals with each of us in the way that will do us the most good.
 
    Consider still another implication.  If no church and no Christian has the complete picture of Jesus, then we all have every reason to be humble.  We are all learners.  And we can all teach each other.  While I may know a lot more about Jesus than someone I meet, that person may have just the perspective on Jesus that I need that day.  The smartest position for a Christian to take is to be a learner in every situation.
 
Lord, help me to learn from everyone I meet today.  Help me also to share with them the unique picture of You that You have given me.

 The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands;the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.  Rev. 1:20.
 
    I drowned about 10 years ago.  Funny, though, I'm still here.  Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, I was about 400 yards from shore in five-foot-deep water, so when my strength began to give out I wasn't worried.  That was when I discovered the water wasn't five feet deep--it was seven feet deep!  And I was in big trouble.
 
    Fortunately I spotted a rock about 18 inches high and 18 inches wide in the sand below the water.  Standing on the rock, I managed to get my nose above water.  Unfortunately, waves kept washing me off the rock, so I couldn't get my strength back.  I called to my wife, who is a better swimmer than I am.  To make a long story short, she came over and helped me stay balanced on the rock until help arrived.
 
    A few months later we told the story to a friend who had done a lot of diving.  "How were you able to keep your nose above water and hold your husband up when you're so much smaller than he is?" he asked my wife.
 
    "I balanced myself on the tips of my fins," she said.
 
    His eyes grew wide.  "That's impossible!  Fins won't support your weight."
 
    "Well, that's what I did!  They felt as solid as my own legs!"
 
    He thought for a minute.  "There's no way that could work.  An angel must have held you up!"
 
    I'm inclined to agree.  In my desperate situation I didn't know how she did it--I was just grateful that my wife was as solid as a pillar next to me.  As I think about her explanation, I'm also convinced an angel held her up.
 
    what are the angels of the seven churches?  Some interpreters think they are the messengers that carried John's apocalypse and read it to the churches.  Others consider them the pastors or leaders of the churches.  Still others conclude that they are God's secret guardians that step in to help when needed, such as what I experienced in Australia. 
 
    The book of Revelation is full of angels.  Most of them are clearly not human beings.  In Jewish tradition, angels guide the activities of earthly rulers (Daniel 10:13, 20, 21, for example) and are sometimes held responsible for the earthly ruler's behavior.  Perhaps these seven angels watched over the leaders of the churches.  It is nice to know that the church, feeble an defective though it may be, has the same kind of watchcare from God's angels that every one of us has.
 
Thank You, Lord, for the messengers that watch over all of Your people.

 Write, therefore, what you have seen, namely, the things which are and the things which must happen after these things.  Rev. 1:19  
 
    In verse 11 the angel told John to "write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches."  The word for "see" in that verse is a present tense, indicating that John was already in vision and that the vision would continue for a time.  Verse 19, on the other hand, has the instructed to "write what you have seen."  The word for seeing is no longer in the present tense.  This suggest that John received the whole vision between verse 10, when he went into the spirit, and verse 18, when he finished the narrative of his encounter with Jesus.  By verse 19 the vision was over--it was time for the writing to begin.
 
    According to verse 29, the content of Revelation fits into two categories: the things that are and the things that must happen after these things.  Revelation 4:1 repeats the language of 1:19: "Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things."  Verse 29, then, seems to be a structuring device for the rest of the book.  The first part of the vision involves the "things which are"--that is, the messages to the seven churches (Revelation 2 and 3).  The rest of the vision focuses primarily on events that are future from John's perspective.  But what good is it to the churches to learn about events beyond their day?
 
    My wife and I recently flew from South Bend, Indiana, to New Zealand.  It was an extremely complicated itinerary, involving three separate flights and a layover in Los Angeles.  We left on Tuesday and arrived on Friday.  Snowstorms in Chicago complicated matters greatly by causing the cancellation of a number of flights into and out of the city.  As a result my wife and I ended up having to take different flights to Los Angeles.  How did we manage to meet again there?
 
    We were able to get together in Los Angeles because we knew something about the future.  Because we were aware of our ultimate goal we were able to make the right decisions along the way.  We knew that whatever our separate routes, United Airlines would hold our luggage at Los Angeles International Airport.  As it turned out, I landed at a gate far from the terminal normally served by United Airlines.  For a time I could find neither my wife nor my baggage. But she wisely waited at the United Baggage Office in Terminal 7.  Eventually I found my way to her and our things.  We might never have reunited if we had not both known where we were going.
 
    Likewise, God tells us about the future so that we can get where we are going today.  Each day is a piece of our itinerary toward God's purpose.  With an eye on His Word we can find our way through the maze of life.
 
Thank you, Lord, for making Your ultimate purpose clear through Your Word.  May my steps today keep me heading in the direction of Your ultimate purpose for me.

  Do not be afraid.  I am the First and the Last, and the One who lives.  I became dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.  Rev. 1:18.
 
    Scholars have noticed a surprising thing in this text.  We find similarities between the description of Jesus here and the greatest, most popular goddess of Asia Minor, Hekate.  Hekate was renowned as the one who possessed the keys to Hades, the mythological realm of the dead.  The ancients called her trimorphos, that is, having three different forms or shapes related to the three great parts of the universe: heaven, earth, and the underworld (Hades).  In her heavenly form she went by the name Selene or Luna (the moon).  On earth she was called Artemis or Diana (see Acts 19).  And in the underworld the Greeks referred to her as Persephone.  She was also known as "the beginning and the end" (Rev. 22:13)."
 
    As the one who freely moves between heaven, earth, and the underworld, Hekate would be the goddess of revelation.  She would be able to reveal on earth the things that went on in heaven and in Hades.  As the holder of the keys to Hades she would also be the one who could provide salvation.
 
    Why would Jesus refer to Himself in ways that so strikingly resemble a pagan goddess?  Because God always meets people where they are (see ! Cor. 9:19-23).  Do you remember the day you met Jesus?   Do you remember the words or actions on his part that reached your heart?  Each conversion story is unique, because God is creative in His approach.
 
    A young man in Arizona was searching for Jesus, though he didn't really know it at the time.  He lay on his couch one day, high on drugs, listening to the Rolling Stones rock music group (in his words, he was "stoned on the Stones").  As he stared up at the ceiling in his altered state of mind, not particularly looking for God, he suddenly saw a face that he recognized as that of Jesus.  Jesus said to him, "When this song is over, you need to get your life in order and follow Me!"  The music died and, stunned, the young man raised himself to a sitting position.  He looked around and saw no one.
 
    Responding to God's call he quit the drugs and the wild life and went back to school.  A few years later he finished seminary and entered the ministry!  It's an incredible testimony to Jesus' ability to reach anyone, even in a drug--and rock music-infested room.  I am in no way suggesting that drugs and the Rolling Stones are a useful path to faith--I simply want to underline the infinite grace of Jesus Christ, who pulls branches out of the fire and puts them to good use!  That means there's hope for you and me, too.
 
Lord, thank You for doing whatever it took to draw me into a relationship with You.

 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.  Rev. 1:17.
 
    As we saw yesterday, encountering Jesus in vision greatly shocked John.  You could say that the book of Revelation arose out of some "shock therapy" that Jesus administered to the prophet.  Jesus comes to him in a totally unexpected form.  He breaks the mold into which the apostle had placed Him.  He stretches the boundaries of the revelator's experience, challenging him to a bigger picture of Jesus.  And the reality is that we all struggle to move past our own limitations when it comes to our understanding of God.
 
    If I were a Muslim I'd probably have a hard time grasping that God could be pleased with someone who doesn't fast one month out of the year and pray five times a day.  I would have no problem eating snakes or rabbits, but I would have a hard time imagining a God who could overlook the consumption of pork.  I'd look down on Christians who drink, while smoking like a chimney!
 
    If I were a Jehovah's Witness I would probably have a hard time accepting that God could use a blood transfusion to save the life of a child.  And if I were a Mormon I might have a difficult time acknowledging a God who could do mighty acts through such people as Moses and Peter who didn't know enough to wear special underwear.
 
    Many Catholics have a hard time believing that a minister or priest can truly please God without being celibate.  In Jesus' day some Jews had a hard time watching the disciples pick a little grain and munch on it while walking through a field on the Sabbath.  Who could do that and still be in the service of God?  Hindus can't eat beef, but pork is OK.  Many Christians thought that the Crusades were a just and holy war.  Protestants on both sides of the American Civil War prayed that God would bring victory to their cause.
 
    All of this reminds me of one of the best book titles I have ever heard: Your God is Too Small!  The Jesus of Revelation is the antidote to "small God syndrome."  We call Him meek and mild, yet many who knew Him best thought He was a dangerous revolutionary.  After all, He called upstanding clergy, labeling them hypocrites.  He referred to the local governor as "that fox."  Earnest religious people He labeled "sons of the devil."  And He kept company with prostitutes and tax swindlers.
 
    Twice He crashed a temple yard sale, knocking over the merchandise, mixing up money they had neatly separated into various accounts, and driving the members off the property.  He went out of His way to heal a homeless person, but seemed to have little respect for important people.  Jesus sure would be nice to have around if He would just do things our way.
 
Lord, help me to accept You as You really are, not just the way I wish You were.

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.  And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid.  I am the Frist and the Last, and the One who lives.  I became dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."  Rev. 1:17, 18.
 
    One day a very strange thing happened to me and to my family.  My wife and I had spent the afternoon shopping with our children.  As we were about to turn into our house we noticed with alarm that all the lights in our house were turned on and that a large and unfamiliar pickup truck sat parked in our driveway.  We sat frozen in place for at least a minute, uncertain what to do.  With fear and trembling I decided to leave the wife and kids in the car and walk right in to confront whoever it was.
 
    I was no less shocked, but considerably relieved, to discover that the "invader" was none other than my wife's father.  Grandpa had decided on the spur of the moment to surprise us by driving 800 miles to Michigan from his farm in North Dakota.  And surprise us he did!  When he didn't find us at home, a neighbor woman helped him break in and get settled.
 
    Now, Grandpa's visit wouldn't have been so unforgettable if he had lived across town.  At that time my father (who did live on the other side of town) often dropped in without warning to check on things or fix something while we were out.  But we thought our other grandpa was 800 miles away!  We never expected him to show up unannounced.  The incident has helped me understand a little of John's reaction when he met Jesus of the island of Patmos. 
 
    You see, John had known Jesus pretty well in the flesh (see 1 John).  But that had been 60 years ago.  And Jesus wasn't in North Dakota--He had ascended to some other part of the universe.  The prophet certainly wasn't expecting Christ to show up in his back yard any moment.
 
    Not only that, this Jesus had the kind of dazzling qualities that John would have associated with God Himself.  He is the "first and the last," terms that describe the great Lord of the Old Testament (Isa. 44:6; 48:12).  Jesus comes to John as the deity of the Old Testament, the one who made the world, gave the law on Mount Sinai, and filled the Temple with glory on Solomon's day.  It must have been a staggering shock for John to take in.  As a result he goes down like a dead person would if someone had stood them up on their feet.  Thud!  It was more than he could handle.
 
    This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.  He is more than a man--He is the God-man.  When, like John, we recover from this realization, we can be comforted to know that He is will able to provide everything we need, including eternal life.
 
Lord, give me a glimpse of Your greatness today.  I want to walk in true humility, a humility that comes from a sense of Your surpassing greatness.

And in the midst of the lampstands was One like a Son of man....His face was like the sun shining in its strength.  Rev. 1:13-16.
 
    The appearance of Jesus on Patmos was dazzling.  At the sight of Him John essentially collapsed from astonishment (Rev. 1:17).  Jesus wasn't anything like the ordinary-seeming human being the prophet had known back in Galilee.  What was the significance of this stunning description? 
 
    The passage presents Jesus as dazzling and impressive as the angel of Daniel 10.  But He is even more than that.  He also bears the characteristics of God.  The hair like wool, the comparison with snow, and the flaming fire are characteristics of the Ancient of Days Himself in Daniel 7:9.  When He calls Himself the first and the last (Rev. 1:17, 18), without question Jesus comes to John as the God of the Old Testament (Isa. 44:6; 48:12).  Jesus is truly a "star" in every sense of the word.
 
    I am reminded of Ben Stein's last column.  He got tired of reporting on Hollywood stars when it seemed there were more important things to be excited about.  Here are his own words:
 
    "I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important.  They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated...[But] how can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a 'star' we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model?  Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines...while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.  They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer....
 
    "A real star...is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station.  He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded....There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central [Los Angeles] and have no idea if they will return alive.  The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery, the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children, the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.  Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse.
 
    "Now you have my idea of a real hero....God is real, not a fiction....We make ourselves sane when we fire ourselves as the directors of the movie of our lives and turn the power over to Him.  I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters....This is my highest and best use as a human."
 
Lord, I appoint Jesus as the director of my life.  He is my ultimate action hero.

 And in the midst of the lampstands was One like a Son of man, dressed in a foot-length robe wrapped around the chest with a golden sash.  His head and His hairs were white like wool, white as snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.  His feet were like polished brass which had been purified in a furnace, and His voce was like the sound of many waters.  He had seven stars in His right hand, a sharp two-edged sword was coming out of His mouth, and His face was like to the sun shining in its strength.  Rev. 1:13-16.
 
    When I was in college, I naturally assumed that Jesus looked roughly like the pictures of Him that I had seen growing up in church.  While I was not aware of any need for Jesus to resemble a German-American, the difference between the usual pictures of Jesus and the kind of people you see in the Middle East was lost on me.
 
    It was in the late 1960s, and I was at the ground zero of college protests, the first Earth Day, the arrival of Black History Week, and lots of marches for racial equality and against the war in Vietnam.  An African-American student pulled me aside one day to catch me up on neglected aspects of my education.
 
    He explained that Jesus was definitely not "White," that in fact He had African features.  Pulling out our text for today, he explained to me that Jesus had hair like wool.  Pointing to his Afro, he said, "Just like me, not like you."  He also noted that the color of polished brass was a lot closer to the color of his feet than of mine.  This encounter provided quite a jolt to my comfortable mental pictures of Jesus, and I am grateful for it.
 
    What is especially interesting is that White supremacists in the American South used the same text to prove that Jesus was White.  After all, His head as well as His hair were white like wool.  According to them, the reference to wool had to do with the color of the hair rather than its texture.  It goes to show that we can easily use the book of Revelation to support opinions not actually addressed in the book.
 
    It was not Jesus' purpose in this vision to give us an exact portrait of what He looks like.  After all, it would be a horrible picture of anyone to have a sword sticking out of their mouth.  And the whiteness of Jesus' head and hair is not to show that He is blond--rather, it recalls the "Ancient of Days" in Daniel 7.  Jesus comes to John directly from the throne of God to give him divine encouragement for the difficulties that would lie ahead for him and for his churches.  It would be a shame to miss the greatness of Jesus in order to focus on the color of His skin.
 
Lord, help me not to be distracted by the many interesting sidetracks that Revelation seems to offer.  Keep my eyes focused on the message about who You really are.