Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. This will be study #48 of Revelation, chapter 1, and we going to begin by reading from Revelation 1:20:

The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

This is the last verse of Revelation, chapter 1. In our last study, we were looking at the word *mystery* and we saw how God uses this word to identify with the hidden truths of the Bible; the Bible is a mystery book. The mystery lies in "what is the truth," or "where is the truth" in a particular chapter or Book. That is the mystery, and it is a mystery that is confounding. You know, earthly mysteries interest men, but, normally, they are not that difficult to figure out---some of the better ones are a little bit more complex, but the Bible is not just a record of one mystery, but there are literally thousands of mysteries within the pages of the Bible.

After working diligently to uncover, perhaps, just one truth in a single verse, you then have to move on to the next verse and work just as hard (and follow the same guidelines that God has laid out) in order to come to the next truth. Another way of looking at it is that it is a "gold mine;" there are tremendous spiritual riches in the Bible, but they are (so to speak) "deep in the earth" or "deep in the rock," and we have to use the that tools God has given us (and we should thank Him a great deal that He has made available to us - to those of us that are alive in these latter days at the time of the end -the Bible help books like a concordance, an interlinear Bible, and so on. Today God has opened up online Bible helps, so people can search the Bible with software that they can get for free. The Lord has given us the tools that will be necessary in order to discover truth.

Of course, it is no coincidence that God has made all of these helps available at this particular time, because it was His plan to seal up the word until the time of the end. So people in the first century or the 10th century, or even in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries did not have the Bible help tools available that we have today. One of the reasons is that God made preparation in many ways, for example, in the electronic medium that He would open up and unseal to the multitudes of people in the world(in probably the only way possible they could ever hear it). He also made preparation in moving individuals to develop these Bible helps so that we would have them readily available to "do our homework," so we could dig in and uncover these things in a much quicker way than anyone could in the past.

For instance, right here next to me, I have the Strong's Concordance. I did not put this together. A man named Strong put it together over a century ago, I think. He and others diligently and painstakingly recorded every word in the Bible, so that all I have to do is look up a word like "shut," and I can find every instance in the Bible where that word is found; then, for example, I am given a phrase in Revelation 3:8 like, "no man can shut," and I am given a number for the Strong's reference, and if I look up the Greek word, it could be translated as different English words. So there is another Bible help called New Englishman's Greek English Concordance and Lexicon, and I look up that Strong's number 2808 in this book, and it lists every place that particular Greek word is found (no matter how many different English words it can be).

As a result of these Bible helps, I can look up a word and quickly go to the word in one concordance, and then also quickly find every instance that word is used in the other concordance. I can perhaps read every place that word is found (depending on the amount of times it is found) in just a few minutes, or maybe a half hour; other words are used quite a lot and it may take a lot longer, but just think of all the time I can save and how hard it would be if we did not have these concordances and all these Bible helps to find all the references where that Greek word (or Hebrew word) is found. Just think how difficult it would be if I had to look in the original language; it would be almost impossible, which would mean I would probably only rarely find every instance a word was used and, therefore, I would not be able to do a thorough job of studying.

But God has made these things so easily available to us now, and it literally saves us hundreds and hundreds of hours of study, because other men have already put these things together and we, in a sense, "enter into their labors," and we can get the job done a lot faster today. That is all part of God's plan because we need to work quickly, as the Lord has opened up these things, and He has given us the ability to cover a lot of ground very quickly through these Bible helps.

Again, in Revelation 1:20, it says, "the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand..." And this is a reference back to Revelation 1:12:

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks...

And, then in Revelation 1:16:

And he had in his right hand seven stars...

So the "seven candlesticks" and the "seven stars" are part of the vision that the Apostle John was given when He turned to see that "great voice," the "one like unto the Son of man," the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the "mystery" of the "seven stars," are a figure of speech and the "seven candlesticks," but, here, God solves the mystery, in our present verse, when He goes on to explain to us, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches."

Jesus sometimes did this when He would speak a parable and then one of His disciples would say, "Explain to us the parable of the sower," and then Christ would give explanation and go into the detail about what the parable meant.

God does this at times. He does not always do it; in fact, most of the time He does not---He expects us to search it out, and to pray for wisdom, and so on. But, here, He also does not give us all the answers; He gives us some answers: "the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." Now, the Lord will go on to address the "angel" of each of the seven churches. For example, in Revelation 2:1:

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write...

And, then in Revelation 2:8:

And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write...

Then in Revelation 2:18:

And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write...

And so on....unto each of the seven churches, so it turns out there are "seven angels," one positioned in each of the seven churches, and the Lord is addressing the letters of Revelation 2 and 3 "unto the angel of the church of" Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, and Laedicia, and so on. God is writing to "the angel," which we also know could be rightly understood to be the "star," as the "seven stars" and "seven angels" are synonymous.

Let us try to define exactly who the "seven stars" are representing. Once we are able to do that, we will understand who the "seven angels" (or messengers) also represent, since they are one and the same. We do know this about the "stars," again, in Revelation 1:16:

And he had in his right hand seven stars...

And it is repeated in Revelation 1:20:

The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand...

We spent some time looking at this a couple of studies ago, and we saw that the "right hand" identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ who is "at the right hand of God," and with salvation, especially where it says in Psalm 17:7:

Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand...

God saves with His "right hand," and the "seven stars" are in his "right hand," and we cannot overlook that; it is a significant statement that God is telling us. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25: the sheep went to the right hand and the goats to the left (hand). The sheep would typify the elect or all those that were saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. So we realize that the "right hand of God" is not a place for goats. It is not a place for someone who professes to be a Christian but is not a Christian. And that is the first clue, in order to further solve this mystery of the "seven stars" which are seen in the right hand of Jesus Christ; the first clue is that they are in his "right hand" and would, therefore, identify with the elect.

Let us look at another clue, and that is the "seven stars." There are "seven stars." What do stars represent in the Bible? We know that Jesus is called "the star of Jacob," or the "bright and morning star" (singular), but this is "stars" in the plural tense. What would they represent?

Let us go to Genesis, chapter 22, and we will read beginning in Genesis 22:15:

And the angel of JEHOVAH called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith JEHOVAH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

In this passage God is referring to Abraham's offering of his only son Isaac, which in turn, spiritually, pictures God the Father's offering of His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because Abraham did not withhold his son, God says, "...blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven;" We can relate that to Christ being sacrificed for His people, and God saving a great multitude (which we know that He did because the Bible tells us that a great number are saved by the saving work of Christ), and they are typified as the "stars of the heaven."

We can find similar statements in at least six or seven other places in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament, that are identifying the believers or the seed (who in the first instance is the Lord Jesus), but as Christ saves His people, they become the "stars of the heaven for multitude."

So that is one helpful thing, as we are thinking about "stars." God has promised that those who will be "blessed in Abraham," (the children of Abraham, in a sense, or the children of God, the elect) will be likened to the "stars."

It also says in Daniel 12:2:

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Again, this can only apply to the true believers and it is speaking of their resurrection. The "wise" would relate to the child of God---to the children of God, the elect people that Christ saved---and they will "shine" as the "stars" eternally, for ever and ever. So, again, we can see how God uses that particular picture.

That picture is also found in Revelation 12 where we see the woman who brings forth the man child, and this woman is a figure to represent the elect people, as Christ came down, in a sense, through the loins of His people, and it says in Revelation 12:1:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun...

(The sun would represent Christ; we are clothed with His righteousness.)

...and the moon under her feet...

(The moon represents the law of God and it condemns us, but we are not "under the law" any more because Christ has paid the penalty.)

...and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

The crown represents salvation, and notice that the crown has "twelve stars," and as there are twelve tribes of Israel or twelve apostles, this is pointing to God's people that do become saved; they are likened to the "stars."

Let us look at this in a verse that uses this word (star) in a negative way, in the Book of Jude (that little one-chapter epistle write before the Book of Revelation) and it says, speaking of false prophets, starting in Jude, verse 11:

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

Here, God is speaking of those who profess to be Christian (they would say they were a child of God); and they give the appearance of being a believer, and that is why they are referred to as "clouds," but they lack "water;" there is no real "water" of the word of God. They are a "cloud," and they give the appearance of a "cloud." They have Bibles and they call themselves Christians, and so on, and, yet, they lacked (during the time when God was saving) the

"water" that could provide salvation; they lacked the Holy Spirit, the water that flows from within the true believer. And God says in verse 13 that they are like "raging waves of the sea." The wicked, the Book of Isaiah tells us, are like the "troubled sea" which casts up mire and dirt and cannot "rest," and that indicates there is no salvation for them because they are not God's elect.

And, here in Jude, these false prophets are referred to as "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars..." God is the one who sets the "stars" in their courses; He is the one who, in the literal heavens, has placed these celestial bodies; He has placed the sun in just the proper spot to give light and life to the earth; He has placed the moon in exactly the spot it needs to be, and God is the one who has scattered the stars in the heavens and set them all in their proper courses. Those stars and lights that we see at night represent the believers.

But a false believer is typified by a "wandering star." He is not following the course that God has set in His word. He thinks he can develop his own gospel, his own doctrines, and his own way---not the way of Christ, so the Lord calls him a "wandering star." You would think he is a believer, perhaps, but he is not.

So the stars represent the rue believers and, in the case of Jude, God gives us additional information so that we know that in that case the "wandering star" is not a true believer.

Again, in our verse in Revelation 1:20: "The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand..." We now have two clues, or two pieces of evidence: first of all, the "stars" are in Christ's "right hand," a place that identifies with salvation; and, secondly, they are called "stars," and the believers (the wise who shine for ever and ever) are also likened to "stars." This helps us to realize that the "seven stars" must be speaking of the elect.

During the church age, where were the elect to be found? They were found in the churches and congregations. But the "seven stars" are called the "seven angels," so there is a problem (someone might say) with that conclusion because when you read each of the addresses to the seven angels of the seven churches, God finds fault with them. For instance, in Revelation 2:1:

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

So far, it is all "well and good," and all that would apply to a believer, but what comes next in Revelation 2:4:

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Is this true of a true believer? Could God ever see our sin and our failure, and come to remove our salvation from us? No. That does not fit at all. Look, especially, at what is said to the angel of the church at Laodicia in Revelation 3:14:

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed...

How can that be referring to a believer? Believers are not luke warm. Believers are not the ones that are "naked" and say they are rich, but, actually, they are miserable and poor. This is talking to individuals that are not yet saved. How can we conclude that the "seven stars" in the "right hand" of the "one like unto the Son of man" are the elect, when those "seven stars" are the "angels" or the messengers of the seven churches?

Well, it is really pretty simple, and there is a good explanation for this, but we have come to the end of our time today. I do not want to rush this, and I want to make sure we understand this very well before we continue in our study of Revelation, chapter 2. Lord willing, next time when we get together, we will look at how the seven stars are the elect, and God is addressing them in each of the seven churches and, yet, making these kind of statements, and how that can be.