The Vision of John

Revelation 1:17–20(KJV 1900) — 17And 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: 18I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. 19Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 20The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

John had an amazing visit from the Lord Jesus, right when he needed it most, recorded here in Revelation Chapter 1.  If I were an outsider looking on at the time, I would say that this little "fad" called Christianity was dead for good.....But God was just beginning! John needed this encouragement, and the Lord provided that along with instruction and prophecy concerning the Church and His Second Coming.

The Key to the entire Book of Revelation is embedded in verse 19: Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 

I'm not a Bible scholar although it is a big part of my job to spend hours reading it, studying it, and praying about it, and preparing to preach from it, I am admittedly dependent upon material written by men of God much more learned than I am.....I learned that in this verse, the things which John had seen was what was in Chapter 1...."the things which are" describe perfectly the conditions of the Churches, past and present, at the time mentioned in Chapters 2 and 3.....the things which shall be hereafter are recorded in Chapters 4-22.....So the history of the Church dispensation will end after Chapter 3 and we see the Return of our Lord, the Great Tribulation, the Millennial Kingdom, and the eternal state of the Church from Chapters 4 till the end.....to me it is exciting to study the history of the Church in conjunction with the Bible....All these 7 churches mentioned in chapters 2 and 3 represent a period in Church history as well....in case you are wondering, SPOILER ALERT [haha], we are most certainly in the Laodicean Age of the Church.....backslidden and "rich" but spiritually starving and dying.....God help us to be the ones He's called us to be....Help us to be a light in a very dark world .... God bless your day! 

Pastor Scott