Just think!  In fact, this is the deepest desire of every follower of Jesus.  Say this to a child and in the sincerity of innocent excitement they will agree at once.  Let’s go! Heaven! Where is it and how will we get there?  Then the enthusiasm is suddenly dampened, since the dwelling place of God –  that is what heaven is after all – is probably far away in the universe and we don’t have spacecraft that can take us there yet. God is there in a celestial palace as unreachable as the furthest planets of the furthest solar systems.

It’s not true! The Bible paints a very different picture.  God is near, accessible, reachable, just a cry far away and then… He is right here with me, present in my song in the night (Psalms 42:8; 77:6), the household friend in my solitude, and the king in my “church” of worship.

The miraculous image of Jesus that John describes in Revelation 1 is majestic, breathtaking, and unique.  It’s a dream image full of symbolism. The qualities of a supernatural figure are communicated to man.  The fullness of the divinity of Jesus is available in a “picture” so that all that He is, is clear at a glance.

It’s grand and different.  John says he was in the spirit when he saw it.  Where was he?  In the power of the Holy Spirit, he entered the invisible and saw heaven.  Where is it?  Right here, right here with us, exactly where you are.  That’s what we can’t see.  It is the place Jesus was going to prepare.  He promised it before the Crucifixion.

 In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so, I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you.  (John 14:2, NLT)

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, everything changes.  The dwelling place of God is now with the people. 

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. (Revelation 21:3)

And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come back and take you to Myself, so that you too may be where I am.  And you know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:3,4)

Jesus explains to the disciples that whoever has seen him also knows the Father.  He speaks of dwelling with the Father and the fact that we see the Father.  These words are all spoken before his death and resurrection.

If you know Me, you will also know My Father. And from now on you know Him and you see Him.”

In the first chapter of Revelation, John “sees” Jesus standing among the lampstands.  The Lampstand is a well-known image in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle.  John himself explains his image in 1:20.  The Candlesticks are the churches – the seven congregations that are symbolic of the whole church.  Seven is the number of perfection and completeness. 

He also explains the seven stars that he sees in Jesus’ hand.  These are the angels of the seven congregations.  Why would the angels be symbolized with stars?  Are they so majestic that John could not describe them?  Yet later in Revelation he speaks to the angel who is so spectacular in appearance that John wants to fall down and worship him.  The angel stops him and calls him a fellow servant.  (Revelation 22:8)

Superstitions arose among some Jews with regard to the stars.  The stars were associated with angels and more and more executive powers were assigned to the angels as celestial beings.  This could lead to an error of belief, for already in Isaiah God warns against the attribution of divine power to the stars.

All the advice you receive has made you tired.  Where are all your astrologers,  those stargazers who make predictions each month?
Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds. (Isaiah 47:13)

The star as the symbol of an angel is aligned with other interpretations of the teacher and protector of a church. 

Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever.  (Daniel 12:3)

Jude (1:12, 13) speaks of wandering stars in connection with those who go astray and selfishly betray the true mission of the Church of Jesus.  

According to Revelation 12:4, the dragon dragged a third (symbolic of a significant minority) of the stars from the heavens and threw them down to the earth.  It refers to the fall of Lucifer and the rebellious angels who deceive the people.

But the most exciting purpose that angels live in the course of Revelation, where, just by the way, they are very active, is in the second and third chapters where God addresses the angel of the congregation.  One might wonder why God would not speak directly to the minister or other representative.  He speaks to the angel of the church.

In the statement of God that He communicates to the angel of the church, God reminds the churches that they already live in a heavenly dimension and therefore must live with a different, unique perspective in the spiritual dispensation.  The churches are viewed “from above,” from God’s point of view.

Just think how important this perspective is.  It puts everything that happens on Earth in a different light, interpretable from another point of view. Not only from an “earthling’s” point of view, but more importantly from God’s point of view.

Man is the only being who can experience salvation.  This tremendous, glorious experience is exclusively for man on earth.  No heavenly being knows what salvation, to be made new by God, is.  That is why Paul tells the Ephesians that the Church proclaims the wonders of God to the heavenly beings — good and bad.

God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10)

How wonderful is that?  To display the multi-faceted wisdom of God to the entire universe – fleshly and spiritually – with our lives made new with the Blood of Jesus – the miracle of salvation, the resurrection in the body according to Philippians 3:10,11.

Jesus stands among the Lampstands — symbolic of the seven churches of Revelation, symbolic of the Church and churches throughout the ages, all of history.  Jesus is alive and active among his own, no matter the denomination or earthly divisions. 

The stars, the angels, of the churches bring us God’s message of salvation, confession and restoration — all the things that are unique to Christianity.