‘And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.'
Having been thus carried forward to ‘the Lord's day' he is initially commanded, by ‘a great voice, as of a trumpet', to write down what he sees in a ‘book' and send it to seven churches.
The picture is vivid. John has arrived in the Lord's day but at first he looks around and sees nothing. And then a voice like a trumpet comes from behind him which makes him turn round, and there before him he sees what he is told to write about, a figure of matchless splendour, whom he recognises as the glorified Jesus, standing among seven lampstands, in readiness for His return.
The voice of a trumpet echoes Exodus 19:16-19 where God spoke with the voice of a trumpet and officially adopted His people in the Lordship covenant treaty containing the ten commandments, with a view to what lay ahead. Here too the Son of Man reminds His churches in the most solemn and powerful manner of His covenant with them, again with a view to what lies ahead. This brings out the solemnity of the moment.
(We must remember here that the ten commandments were in the context of a covenant of grace, very similar in form to the suzerainty treaties of those days. The covenant begins with a description of God's Name and His gracious acts, describing Who He is and what He has done for them. He then requires in return their response, submission and obedience. It is initially a covenant of grace not a covenant of Law. Its nature was changed by the misinterpretation of later ages).
What John has to write down is ‘what he sees'. That is that the Lord Jesus Christ is poised to return in splendour to have dealings with His people, and that they need to prepare for this occasion. Then he is told to send to the seven churches the messages delivered to him, in the context of this vision. The seven letters containing the messages follow in Chapter s 2 and 3 and are directly based on the vision. It is clear from this that the description of this magnificent revelation of the returning Christ was also sent with the letters. We have no grounds for denying that these letters actually were sent round the seven churches, for the churches are mentioned in a circular order suitable for visits by a messenger.