Articles by Daniel R. Hyde
Some of these articles first appeared in peer-reviewed academic journals and scholarly venues written for colleagues in the academic guild and the ministerium—Calvin Theological Journal, Puritan Reformed Journal, Mid-America Journal of Theology, and The Confessional Presbyterian. Some are more popular pieces written for church members that read carefully. For a full list, see my Curriculum Vitae.
They explore the history and practice of Reformed liturgy (including the neglected place of absolution), the theology of the Heidelberg Catechism and the broader Three Forms of Unity, the task of preaching, and disputed questions in Reformed history and catholicity.
The journal articles date from 2006 to 2017, written across two decades of pastoral ministry and doctoral work at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Each article is available in full text, as a PDF, or both.
He Never Left the Room
Where is Jesus now? The ascension seems to put him at a distance, but Revelation answers by showing where he walks: in the midst of the lampstands, among his churches.
Where is Jesus now? The ascension seems to put him at a distance, but Revelation answers by showing where he walks: in the midst of the lampstands, among his churches.
Jesus’s ascension creates a problem the New Testament doesn’t hide. A cloud took him out of his disciples’ sight (Acts 1:9). He “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). The ancient creeds say the same: he “ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father” (Nicene Creed).
This raises an obvious question: if Jesus is there, where does that leave us here?
The New Testament answers mostly by assertion. Jesus said, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). True and comforting promises, but they can feel abstract to hurting souls.
The book of Revelation does something else. It doesn’t assert the presence of Christ. It shows you where he’s walking.
In the Midst
John turns toward the voice speaking to him and sees seven golden lampstands, “and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man” (1:12–13). Eighteen verses later the image is decoded: the seven lampstands are the seven churches (1:20).
So, the living Jesus is located in the middle of his congregations.
Watch what John does with the same phrase. In chapter 5 he’s looking into the throne room of God itself, and sees in the midst of the throne a Lamb standing as though slain (5:6). The identical construction, en mesō (ἐν μέσῳ). Christ is in the midst of the throne and in the midst of the lampstands. Revelation feels no tension between the two.
That’s the answer to the ascension question, given to us in a picture rather than a proposition. Jesus didn’t go away and leave just a faint memory behind.
The Presence That Knows Particulars
In chapters 2 and 3, Christ says seven times “I know.” What he knows isn’t generic. He knows particulars like Smyrna’s bank balance: “your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich” (2:9). He knows Pergamum’s address: “where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is (2:13). He knows that Thyatira’s latter works exceed the first (2:19). He knows Sardis has a reputation for being alive but is really dead (3:1). He knows what Laodicea says about itself, and what’s actually true (3:17).
That isn’t surveillance like an orbiting satellite. These are words of someone who’s been in the room for years.
And to the smallest church on the list, he says touchingly, “I know that you have but little power” (3:8). Small isn’t invisible. A congregation can be beneath the notice of its own city while it’s not beneath Jesus’s.
He Can Be Among You and Not With You
These seven letters end where the opening vision doesn’t prepare you for.
To Ephesus, Jesus threatens, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (2:5). The presence isn’t a fixed piece of furniture. It can be withdrawn.
And to Laodicea, Jesus woos, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (3:20). Revelation opened with Christ in the midst of the lampstands, and his letters end with him outside one of them, locked out of his own church, so to speak. Yet, note his long-suffering, still knocking, still offering himself.
A congregation can have Jesus among them and not with them. It can be lampstand and lose its light.
What This Means During an Ordinary Week
The Heidelberg Catechism asks a question directly, then answers it with the whole truth:
But isn’t Christ with us until the end of the world as he promised us?
Christ is true man and true God. In his human nature Christ is not now on earth; but in his divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit he is never absent from us. (Q&A 47; URCNA Synod 2016 revision)
Revelation is that answer in picture form. Jesus isn’t here the way your neighbor is. He’s here the way the light is in the lampstand.
The Presence of Christ
“He is here the way the light is in the lampstand.”
So, next Lord’s Day, when the congregation is smaller than you’d like and the singing is so thin you wonder whether any of it registers anywhere, know that Jesus hears because he’s present in the midst.
And he’s still knocking on the doors of churches that have stopped noticing.
Revelation: Jesus Wins
© 2026 Daniel R. Hyde. Permission is granted to reprint this article in full, unaltered, for non-commercial use, provided the attribution below is included and links to the original. For excerpts, translations, or commercial use, see Permissions.
To attribute: Daniel R. Hyde, "He Never Left the Room," https://www.danielrhyde.com/articles/where-is-jesus-now-presence-of-christ-revelation. Used by permission.
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