Book of Common Prayer

⁴ John, to the seven churches in Asia: grace to you and peace from He Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus the Messiah, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Glory to the one who loved us, and freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and father—glory and power be to him forever and ever. Amen.

⁷ Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him; yes, even those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him. Yes! Amen.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come, the Almighty.

Jesus revealed

⁹ I, John, your brother and your partner in the suffering, the kingdom, and the patient endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. ¹¹ “Write down what you see in a book,” it said, “and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

¹² So I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. As I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the middle of the lampstands “one like a son of man,” wearing a full-length robe and with a golden belt across his chest. ¹⁴ His head and his hair were white, white like wool, white like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵ his feet were like exquisite brass, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. ¹⁶ He was holding seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword was coming out of his mouth. The sight of him was like the sun when it shines with full power. ¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though I was dead.

He touched me with his right hand. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I am the first and the last ¹⁸ and the living one. I was dead, and look! I am alive forever and ever. I have the keys of death and Hades. ¹⁹ Now write what you see, both the things that already are, and also the things that are going to happen subsequently. ²⁰ The secret meaning of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, by the way, 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 themselves.

Jesus’ true family

⁴³ “When the unclean spirit goes out of a person,” Jesus continued, “it goes wandering through waterless places looking for somewhere to rest, and doesn’t find anywhere. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house, the one I left.’ When it gets there it finds it standing empty, clean and tidy. ⁴⁵ Then it goes out and collects seven other spirits to join it, spirits worse than itself. They go in and take up residence there. The poor person ends up worse off than they were to start with! And that’s what will happen with this wicked generation.”

⁴⁶ Suddenly, while he was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers came and stood outside, hoping for a chance to speak to him.

⁴⁷ “Look,” someone said to him, “your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you.”

⁴⁸ “Who is my mother?” said Jesus to the person who had spoken to him. “Who are my brothers?”

⁴⁹ Then he stretched out his hand towards his disciples.

“Look!” he said. “Here are my mother and my brothers. ⁵⁰ Yes; anyone who does what my heavenly father wants is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.”