Ivy Church, Manchester

VII Churches

No book in Scripture reveals the glory of God and Christ more than does Revelation, yet no book has been more misunderstood, misinterpreted and neglected than this one. It’s the only book in the Bible that begins and ends with a promise of blessing to the one who reads it. The apostle John describes a series of visions which unveil the reality of history and what heaven is doing now here on earth. Letters are sent to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea - actual cities, real churches, local congregations - but John’s FIRST vision is of Jesus Christ and it blows the hinges off his expectations as he sees the resurrected, reigning Christ, not in heaven but walking among His churches. This is not the soft focus, sweet, sentimental Jesus of popular imagination; this is soon returning, sovereign, searching Jesus of biblical reality - whose all-seeing eyes blaze like fire. Expansion begins, not with strategy or self-effort, but with a bigger vision of who Jesus is. Let’s expand our vision of Jesus. Let’s worship Him for who He is. Let’s hear what the Spirit says—and respond.