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New Testament Reading - Alive For Evermore

¹⁰It was the Lord’s Day and I was worshiping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast, ¹¹saying, “I am A and Z, the First and Last!” And then I heard him say, “Write down everything you see, and send your letter to the seven churches in Turkey:^a to the church in Ephesus, the one in Smyrna, and those in Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²When I turned to see who was speaking, there behind me were seven candlesticks of gold. ¹³And standing among them was one who looked like Jesus, who called himself the Son of Man,^b wearing a long robe circled with a golden band across his chest. ¹⁴His hair was white as wool or snow,^c and his eyes penetrated like flames of fire. ¹⁵His feet gleamed like burnished bronze, and his voice thundered like the waves against the shore. ¹⁶He held seven stars in his right hand and a sharp, double-bladed sword in his mouth,^d and his face shone like the power of the sun in unclouded brilliance.

^17-18When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead; but he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! Though I am the First and Last, the Living One who died, who is now alive forevermore, who has the keys of hell and death — don’t be afraid!

1. Literally, “in Asia.”
2. Literally, “like unto a Son of Man.” John recognizes him from having lived with him for three years, and from seeing him in glory at the Transfiguration.
3. Literally, “His head—the hair—was white like wool.”
4. Literally, “came out from his mouth.”