Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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.