Revelations Chapter One (Part IV)

By Odon Bulamba (16th Feb 01)

Revelation 1:10

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet

What is the Lord’s Day? In Africa we say the Lord’s day is on Sunday, the Adventist think it’s on a Saturday, so what does the Lord’s day mean? Is the Lord’s day a Sunday? Is it a Saturday? Who wants to speak about the Lord’s Day? Is it the day of judgement? The Lord’s Day is the day of everything and that is what the Hebrew’s call the Sabbath! The Bible says in Genesis that, “on the seventh day God rested”. The Lord’s Day is a day of accomplishment.

Exodus 25:31-40. 31 And thou shall make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. 32And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: 33Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower 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.
34And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. 35And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick. 36Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. 37And thou shall make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. 38And the tongs thereof, and the snuff dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. 39Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels. 40And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.

The Lord’s day is what God promised He will do in the last day, it means judgement day, a day where all sinners will be somewhere, a day where Christian tears will be wiped away, a day where the moon will be changed into blood and the sun will become dark.

The moon was created by God and gives the night-light because during the day the sun over powers it and the moons light cannot be seen. The moon is there but is not as strong as the sun and has a weaker light. Why does the moon bring light only at night? This moon that gives us light will be changed into blood, and it’s something that God created to teach us. We know that the sun represents God Himself. The sun is powerful and God is powerful, the sun is a power of fire and God is a power of fire.

In the sun you have heat, light and fire. These are the three dimensions of God. You also have the stars. When Jesus was born there was a bright star shinning and we as Christians represent the role of this star. It teaches us about the Holy Spirit and how He leads us.

When Abraham was counting the stars he was counting the great achievements of the Holy Spirit in his life. How many times do you count what the Holy Spirit has done in your life? I remember when I was ten I knew I could find faith looking at the stars and counted thousands over many years. I wanted to know the meaning physically but not spiritually. On the Lord’s Day when the moon will be turned to blood, the mildness we know about the moon will disappear and the light it produces will not be seen anymore because it will be turned into blood. When we see blood we know that there is life. Blood as we know is always there when a person or animal is killed, so during the Lord’s Day we will see what will happen, but those who have the Spirit of God will go up in the air to meet our Lord. The spiritual will be taken towards the Lord and a strong voice will come from behind them and this is what we call the trumpets.

When the trumpets will ring the dead will rise, the Christians will be transformed and the eyes of the sinner will be opened, they’ll try to find the light but in vain. This is when the Bible says, “we are the light of the world”. On this day sinners will go towards Brenda and say, “I want you to pray for me Brenda”, but Brenda won’t be found. The Bible says, “People will look for the Word with all their strength but will not find it”. This word was freely given to them but they rejected it. All those who are left on the earth will buy their own life with blood and it won’t come cheap.

Revelation 1:11.

“ Write in a book what you see, and sent it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea”.

Before John was given the order of writing the trumpet sounded. John heard the sound of trumpets and after this sound he heard another voice say, “Write everything you see in a book”. Did John have books with him? Did he have ink to write with? What is a book according to spiritual life? The book is what we call the secret of God given through people. A book is what we call, The Revelation of the Lord through Christians, it’s what will call the knowledge of God in our lives.

The Bible says in Joshua 1:8, “you have to meditate on God’s word day and night” and by doing this you will be blessed in everything you do. It was also said in Joshua, I must know everything by heart and in Psalm 119:11 David says, your word I have hidden in my heart so that I may not sin against You.

It means that the word of God must hide in your heart and this will keep you from sin. One day I left the camp to head to the capital city. On the way we where stopped by bandits. They lead us to the forest with many Somalia’s who were mostly Muslims. The bandits wanted to have a competition to see whether or not I knew the Bible. So I had to defend the Bible and they had to defend the Koran. However I didn’t have my Bible. When they asked me a question I had to give a Biblical reference. The Muslims were the same; they had to give a reference to the Koran. God really helped me that day and we ended up talking for days and God showed Himself.

If I hadn’t written the Word in my heart, what would have happened? There is a good thing Christians should do, you should find five minutes a day or week to memorise a verse from the Bible. It means that if we talk about the life of Moses we must know where it is in the Bible. So you have to learn one verse a day, if it is too hard to learn do it once a week! So write this verse on a sheet of paper so you can see it easily.

God told John to write everything he saw. John didn’t write, “I can see lizards or spiders on this island of Patmos”. As people in this world see things they look only materially and forget they need spiritual vision. When a servant of God writes a book about salvation you can read it but you will understand nothing from it. Maybe you will learn grammar or spelling but in depth you see nothing spiritual speaks because authors contradict themselves.

God said, “write what you can see and send it to the 7 churches”. John discerned that he had to write spiritual things and not material things. He discovered it was God who was talking to him because he didn’t hesitate to write it down. The Bible says that, “John was taken in by spirit”. It wasn’t his body working but his spirit. How often do we work for God spiritually? When you prepare a message, is it the Spirit of God leading your mind? Do you pray to God and say, “give me your Spirit so it can talk through me? Do you ask God, “God lead my prayer so the Holy Spirit will organise my prayers?

The 7 churches had characteristics appealing to God. Although these churches had problems they were interesting for God because they had a meaning. When God created the world in 7 days everything He created was good, but today if you meet with a lion you will find that the lion is not good. If you meet a bear, you will say, “this bear isn’t very friendly, it wants to eat me”.

It’s the same with the church of God today, some have positive aspects and some have negative aspects. It is the same when the Bible talks about the ten virgins. Five were foolish and five were wise. Wisdom only comes with the fear of God; if you don’t fear God you will not be wise. It was said to John that, “the first church you will talk to is Ephesus” [the church where John was a pastor]. Ephesus is the first church; this is how God works spiritually. God won’t ask you to correct someone if you are not corrected yourself. God won’t send you far away if you have a problem with yourself. The secret to succeed is to respect what God has said, before removing the speck in your brothers’ eye take out the plank in your own eye first, then you will see clearly and can help others.

We know what the church of Ephesus had and we know who they were, and we also know that Paul prayed for them and that they were in unity with God.

Let’s look at Joel. Was Joel a lady or man? Where can you find this book? Joel was a man of God. God would use him at anytime to save His people. Joel 2:1-2.

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand: A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong: there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. And rend your heart, and not your garments, turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

If you read all these verses you’ll see that what we read in Revelations is summarised in this little book that concerns the day of the Lord. Satan hates the book of Genesis and Revelations. In the book of Genesis God took his power from satan and humiliated him to the point he would crawl on his belly and man was given the power to crush his head. Satan thought he was strong but was humiliated before man. These books expose the devil. Satan doesn’t want you to know about these books.

The book of Revelation speaks his judgement and end, so if you love this book the devil will not be your friend. Satan fears when people read this book because he knows that it talks about they way he has lost, so he’ll try his best to confuse people. Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega”, Jesus Himself is the first and the last. So Joel warns us to be careful on the day of God’s anger because grace won’t last forever. Woe to the man who won’t stand firm to what he has because the little he has will be taken from him. Woe to you Christians who have been Christians for years but don’t stand 100% for Him, for Jesus will tell you, “I don’t know you”.