Revelation 1:9-20

⁹I, John, your brother and the one who shares with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. ¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹saying: “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches – to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” ¹²I turned to see whose voice was speaking to me, and when I did so, I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³and in the midst of the lampstands was onelike a son of man. He was dressed in a robe extending down to his feet and he wore a wide golden belt around his chest. ¹⁴His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame. ¹⁵His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His face shone like the sun shining at full strength. ¹⁷When I saw him I fell down at his feet as though I were dead, but he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, ¹⁸and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! ¹⁹Therefore write what you saw, what is, and what will be after these things. ²⁰The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.