Revelation 1:9-20

I am John, your brother who shares with you in the suffering and in the kingdom and in the patient waiting that are our experience in Jesus. I was detained on the island of Patmos for sharing the word of God and the truth as revealed by Jesus. I was filled by the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard a loud voice behind me that sounded like a trumpet. It told me, “Write down in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” I turned round to see who was speaking to me. When I turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and standing among the candlesticks was someone who looked like a Son of man. He was wearing a robe that reached down to his feet with a golden sash across his chest. His hair looked like white wool, and his eyes like flaming fire. His feet looked like polished brass that had been refined in a furnace. His voice sounded like a thundering waterfall. He was holding seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword came out of his mouth. His face shone like the sun at its brightest. When I saw him I fell down at his feet as if I were dead. But he touched me with his right hand and said, “Don't be afraid, I am the first and the last, the living one. I was dead, but look! Now I am alive for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and the grave. So write down what you've seen—what's happening in the present and what will happen in the future. The meaning of the seven stars that you saw me holding in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.”