Revelation 1:9-20

I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction,  kingdom,  and endurance  that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.  I was in the Spirit  , on the Lord’s day, and I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet  saying, “Write   on a scroll   what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” Then I turned to see whose voice  it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,  and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man,  , dressed in a robe  and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.  The hair of his head was white as wool #— #white as snow   #— #and his eyes like a fiery flame.  His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace,  and his voice like the sound of cascading  waters.  He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth,  and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.  When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.  He laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last,   and the Living One.   I was dead, but look #— #I am alive forever and ever,   and I hold the keys   of death and Hades. Therefore write what you have seen,   what is, and what will take place after this. The mystery   of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels   of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands   are the seven churches.