Hello, Bridgestown Church and all of you watching online, a very happy Easter to you from the

Comer family to all of you at home, by yourself or with your family or your friends, and a warm

welcome to the teaching portion for Bridgestown Online. Please turn your Bibles to Revelation

Chapter 1. If you're new to the Library of Scripture, it's the very last book all the way to the

Library. And let me read over you our text for today, Revelation Chapter 1 verse 9,

Down to verse 18. I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient

endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the Word of God and the

testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day, I was in the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like

a trumpet which said, right on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus,

Mourna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Leodicea. I turned around to see the voice that

was speaking to me and when I turned around I saw seven golden lamp stands and among the lamp

stands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden

sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were

like a blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice was like the

sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held the seven stars and coming out of his mouth

was a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all of its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and he said,

do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and now look,

I am alive forever and ever and I hold the keys of death and hideous.

The philosopher Agnes Callard from the University of Chicago had an op-ed last week entitled,

why am I reading apocalyptic novels right now? It was about the sharp uptick in people reading

novels like The Road by Cornback McCarthy or Station 11 by Emily St. John Mendel or watching movies

...