This week, Darrell pulls back the curtain on the pastoral letter written by Apostle John to the seven churches scattered throughout Asia Minor. The book of Revelation unveils the dramatic description of what John witnessed in a vision given by God while exiled on the island of Patmos. John exhorts the Church to see and hear the Voice at the centre of everything, the Voice that is a Person - Jesus Christ. This Voice gives the Church two great commands: to not be afraid, and to look at Him. To listen to this Voice above all the world’s many voices is to hear and see Jesus and to become oriented to the great unseen reality of His rule and reign. In looking at the Living One, we experience a true apocalypse - the revelation that we do not need to fear the future or the turmoil of our present circumstances, because Jesus is on the throne.

In Revelations 2 & 3 Jesus blows the circuit on who we think he is and what the church is. In the form with which these chapters or ‘messages’ were written, there are prophetic and imperial statements being made about who Jesus Christ is and about what he understands His church to be in and for the world. For the first time the church gathering is described as ecclesia, a word that was reserved for when people were summoned by the King or Emperor to gather about the business of the city. This week Darryl unpacks the summons from Jesus the Everlasting King for His people to gather, share in His life and be about the business of the Kingdom of God in the city.