Jesus In The Midst S27e3 Rev1:13

It is my suggestion that you :

• place yourself along side the people that God has placed Himself alongside. 
• go stand in the middle of those whom God stands in the middle of
• listen from the place where God speaks as loudly as a trumpet
• stand in the midst of those God stands in the midst of

Where is this amazing place? It is in THE CHURCH. It is in the literal, local, knucklehead-filled, imperfect church. Yup, you in the pews this sunday. Why? Because Jesus is in the MIDST of His real church. Join Him.

bewithme.us Listen to the 7 minute podcast. It is excellent today. ;-)

Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:00

Good morning, my brothers and sisters. Welcome to episode number three in the book of Revelation. Oh my goodness, we're gonna see Jesus in the midst today. I think we're gonna title that and we're going to answer the big question, why should I go to church? Well, the short answer is we're going to find Jesus, the Son of man among his churches today. And there's going to be this intimacy and knowing and holding and keeping it all this stuff. Alright, listen in with me. This is from Revelation chapter one verses nine, I John, your brother and partner in the tribulation. And then the kingdom. And the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos, on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day on Sunday. And I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, are there any quiet trumpets for Sullivan saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches. This is why we have it today. To emphasis in Smyrna, and to Pergamum. And to Theia. Tyra and the service, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and I'm turning, I saw the seven golden lampstands, those of the churches and in the midst of the lampstands, one, like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, and with a golden sash around his chest. And we'll find out tomorrow, all kinds of other outfit things that he has on. Alright, so But let's, let's set the scene here. So we have John, he's our author, our scribe, he's the guy that keeps seeing stuff. And the Lord says, Hey, write this down, specifically here today. Who is it? It's John the Apostle, it's maybe a 95 ad. And he describes Christianity as being a partner in tribulation. So it ain't easy. In the kingdom, and with patient endured so know what you're signing up for when you become a Christian. Those three things at least you get to be a part of the kingdom, the big party, fantastic, but there's tribulation and hard stuff, and character things you need to work on. And where are they? They're in the island of Patmos. Now, this was, this is a 4024 square mile. Mediterranean, it's in the Aegean Sea, it's an island. And it was used as a Roman prison. Now, there may have been a prison on the island. But the point is, the whole island is a prison. You're imprisoned on the island, and church tradition has that John actually lived in a cave. Not that it matters. All right. So he was in the spirit. So he's in a special on a special days is that this is on a Sunday, on the you know, on the Sabbath, the Sabbath day, he's in the Spirit. And he's got his spiritual glasses on this on the Lord's Day. So it's a Sunday revelation that we have here today and of interest, of course, that's the resurrection resurrection day of Jesus, which is why we celebrate on Sunday. And why is this? Well, why do we have the book because John sees stuff and here's stuff and he is commanded by Jesus Himself to write this book. So this message was sent to John, capture by John and then send it out, which is why we have it today. And who is it's the seven churches. So when we talk about churches, we don't mean buildings, we mean people, we mean the people in the midst of the Lord's presence, and we'll get more of that here today. It's people who the Lord is near. All right, and then verse 13, the big one for today, in the midst of the lampstands, which we find out are the churches in the midst of the churches, one like a Son of Man. So we find Jesus kind of standing in the middle of this organization. So you may say, Hey, I see Jesus in nature. But does he ever say that he stands in the middle of nature in the midst of nature, Psalm 19, says, The heavens declare the glory and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. But That almost seems like second person compared to what we have today, the image of Jesus in the first person standing in the midst of the church. So where is Jesus? And where can I see him? You know, where can I find in touch him, I think two places in His word and in his church. So Jesus is amidst knuckleheads, that is real people in real troubles and real tribulation, exercising real patient. So tomorrow, in the days to come, we'll see what Jesus looks like. But the part of today that I couldn't get over is where do you find Jesus? It's amidst the church. You remember the famous line in Jerry Maguire movie? You had me at hello. And Jesus is is, you know, surprising us whereas, oh, he's in the midst of the church. So the image to illustrate why your physical presence is is physically required in a physical church day. Is that where you physically find Jesus? So today's passage answers, why do you go go to church, because Jesus is in the midst, uniquely in the midst of his church. So I know you can find Jesus and beauty and an excellence and a nature and an order, but in a primary source kind of a way, he's in the midst of your church. It's a unique thing of all locations that you can go to. It's Jesus in the middle, in the middle, centrally located at the center of the church. So I suggest that you go stand in the place where you find Jesus, literally, I suggest that you place yourself alongside the people that God has placed himself alongside, and go stand in the midst of those that God stands in the midst of and go listen in the place where we know that the Lord is trumpeting. So make your stand among those that Jesus is known to make his stand amidst. There's, and I have nothing against the Humane Society of the Red Cross or the health club or schools, or hospital, but go to the place, and go place yourself in the middle of those that he's put himself in the middle of, and brace yourself. When you get there, you're going to find, you know, the Lord Himself. And that's going to be scary. And he's going to tell us all kinds of scary things. But today, you're going to find knuckleheads. And they're mostly redeemed, and they're mostly on the path of sanctification. But yet, the other thing you get when you go stand where Jesus stands is you get knuckleheads. And among whom stance, Jesus himself. So let's imagine ourselves today, finding Jesus where we can see him most clearly. Where's that in the midst of my church? So let's look with new spiritual eyes, seeing Jesus in leadership and in the guitar player and in the nursery joy and seeing them in the home seen Jesus in the homeless ministry and seeing him in the reverence for service that's be in the Spirit. So why should I go to church on Sunday? Because you're gonna find Jesus in the midst. Thanks for listening