I do hope even in our passage this evening, you can see the language
of Revelation coming through in that hymn.
Who was and is and is to come, the first, the last, the Alpha, the
Omega, the risen Satan, Savior.
And to that cry of every tribe and nation and tongue that we'll
get to in Revelation 7, singing Amen.
And salvation belongs to our God.
I think as we make our way through Revelation, we will discover
how much of our singing actually comes from Revelation.
And why shouldn't it?
Because Revelation is that great unveiling where the curtain
is pulled for us to see what is the glory of eternity.
Well, we might be thinking of the glory of eternity, but there
was one night a number of days ago that wasn't too glorious for
me.
I don't know if you've ever had the experience that I am speaking
of with mistaken identity.
Now, I know, I know.
I walk through this village and people say, you know, there goes
somebody famous.
Who is it?
It's Brad Pitt.
And I know, look, I'm sorry, it's not Brad Pitt, it's me.
It's just me.
I know there's a mistake in identity, but it wasn't that kind
of mistaken identity, unfortunately, because it wasn't
them who mistook me, it was me who mistook someone else.
I was coming out of the barbican, it was quite late in the
evening, and I passed someone who looked at me as I tried to place
them in my head.
And they looked intently as if they knew who I was.
So I thought, well, if they think they know who I am, I better
try and figure out who they are.
It was dark, it was while I was sick, so I was not feeling great,
and nothing came to mind as to who this was.
And so as I walked to my car, I thought to myself, well, they looked
at me, so I need to think who that was.
And as I walked to the car, I saw, oh, there's a car I recognize.
And I matched the person with the car.
And immediately I thought I knew who it was.
And not wanting to appear rude, I waited until they finished
in the shop.
And then as they were walking across the car park, I approached
them.
Now, the key thing to remember here, that it's dark and I'm not
feeling 100% and I greet the person and start chatting away to
them.
I could see them looking strangely at me.
Now, I thought it was just the darkness.
So I continued in my conversation and I stopped for a
breath.
And this was their opportunity to ask me the stomach wrenching question
of who are you?
Still, I was undeterred and not fully reading the situation because,
remember, I'm still unwell with a slight fever.
I Exclaim, I'm the Reverend McCullough.
I nearly said, don't you know who I am?
But I didn't.
Now, their continued blank look should have been enough for
me to realize that this wasn't going the way I thought.
But I continued assuming that their eyesight was impaired by the
darkness of the night.
It wasn't until I stopped to draw another breath that the person
interjected and said, I think you have the wrong person.
And they were right, as they got into a completely different car
that I thought they should be getting into.
It was one of those moments.
We've all had them.
It's one of those moments when you know that you wish the ground
would swallow you up, or that you tried not to be polite and wait
and say hello to the person and simply just gone home.
And I think we're generally good at identifying people, so when
we get it wrong, we can just feel the weight of the world upon
us and the embarrassment of the red cheeks.
You see, we're good at identifying people, perhaps in better
light and not with a fever, because we know people to see, and
so we will speak to them.
And when we meet someone we know well, we'll at least warmly
greet them as we pass each other.
Or at best we will stop and we'll have a chat.
And in the second half of this first chapter of Revelation, we actually
see a warm reunion.
John is the disciple whom Jesus loved John who's writing Revelation
John was at Jesus side while reclining in the upper room at the
Last Supper.
He was one of the three disciples to see the transfigured
Jesus.
And he was the one who was at the side of Mary as Jesus was crucified.
And what John sees next would be familiar to him in one way.
But instead of seeing the Jesus he knew and expected while
he was on earth, he he is given an image of who Jesus is now,
the risen glorious Savior in eternity.
And to understand this fully, we need to go back to verse three
of chapter one.
Maybe you thought last week I rushed over chapter three quite quickly.
Well, what I want to say about verse three this evening, it's important
for us to understand this bit and the next two chapters.
See, verse three introduces us to the purpose of the Revelation,
and it's one of prophecy.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy,
and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it.
For the time is near.
Now, technically speaking, Revelation is not necessarily the.
The same prophetic books that we would have in the Old Testament.
In many ways, we read it more like the tail end of Daniel, which
is end times.
So it's got that sense.
And we know that because it's telling us about the revealing of
the end of human history.
But there is an encouragement here from John, and that is, first
of all, that we need to read this book aloud.
Do you see what it says before we get to the.
The prophecy bit, you know, or he says, read aloud the words.
He wants us to read this book, not simply to sit and just inwardly
digest it.
But I encourage you to read it.
To read it aloud, it takes about 40 minutes.
And I should say some of you have said you went to the Faith Mission,
you got this little book last or during the week.
This is a little scripture journal that has the text of Revelation
on one side and space to write on the other.
And it means you can underline words, highlight words, or whatever
you want to do.
It's a great little book.
£6.25.
The Faith Mission has a number of copies in, and they can get more
if they sell out.
But I would highly recommend, if you want to take this study of
Revelation, then have a little book like this so that you can jot
down and highlight and cross things and make things as you want
to understand them.
So the encouragement here is to read this book.
The encouragement here is to read it aloud.
It's 40 minutes.
Can you do that in a day?
Can you do it over two days?
But read it through.
But we are to read this book prophetically.
Now, the question is, what does prophetically mean?
As I introduced this book last week, I said that a lot of the time
we will turn to Scripture itself to help us understand God
is not so unkind and uncaring that he wouldn't give us a book that
we couldn't understand.
And like every book in Scripture, as you will see in every
sermon that I preach, it is the rest of Scripture that supports
or helps us understand what has been said in the passages.
Because remember, the story of Scripture is one story from beginning
to end.
So when we read of the Old Testament prophets, when we read
the major and the minor prophets, we can see that they warn
the people of God what is ahead of them.
They will tell them what is the future.
And so all too often, we think that prophecy is just exclusively
future telling, but that future telling is always grounded
in the context in which the people find themselves at that time.
And so when you survey how much is written in the prophets,
you begin to see that more words are used to tell the people
about their current reality, where they find themselves, what
their worship of God is like and who their enemies are.
That's what the prophets dedicate themselves to.
And often that is used in a bizarre or that is often told through
a bizarre example of what has to be done.
Sitting in a well or a cistern, marrying a prostitute, buying
land that you'll never take ownership of.
God uses these images in prophecy to tell the people what
their current reality is, what their situation is.
And often it is a situation of peril.
And once the context is set, then words are used as a warning
of what will happen.
That's future telling if they do not repent.
So when we read the word prophecy, we must not jump to think
that it is only foretelling the future.
Most of prophecy tells us about our current reality, and that
is what we see in these next few chapters.
And John begins by setting the scene for his readers.
He states that he is on the island of Patmos.
That's the island in the Aegean Sea, opposite Miletus, off
the coast of modern day Turkey.
He is clear in saying that he is with his brothers and sisters
in Christ as they endure the tribulation.
Now, tribulation is a word that's going to come up again.
But from this verse we see that John is speaking in the present
tense about what all Christians are facing at the hands
of the Roman authorities.
And it is because of this tribulation, it's because of his
witness of Christ and because of the word of God that he is imprisoned
on the island.
He's been put there, he's been sent away so that he will not spread
the message of the Gospel.
But look at how even an island prison doesn't stop the word of the
lord.
Because verse 11 says to us, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day,
and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.
Now, when we hear of John speaking that he was in the Spirit,
there is a movement of God going on in John's life.
And that is clear in what is then revealed to him in the Revelation.
But once again, we see this already in Scripture, because this
is the same expression that is used for the kind of experience that
Old Testament prophets had, such as Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah,
who were described to be in the Spirit as the Lord revealed to
them.
And so, like these prophets of old, John was commanded to write
down what he saw.
And John was continuing to worship God regardless of the circumstances
he found himself in.
And as he worships and as the Spirit leads him, he hears a voice
behind him.
Now, what is interesting, it's a verse or two.
Yet before John will actually turn round and notice what or how
he describes that voice like a trumpet.
Now, this is one of John's most used phrases in the book, the
little word like.
John is a mere human being.
He is not the divine.
What does God tell us throughout Scripture?
No one can see my face and live because he is a pure and a perfect
and a holy God.
So what has been revealed to John is the best that his human understanding
can comprehend.
That's why the word like comes up again and again.
So John is doing his best to capture for us what he sees and what
he hears.
So the command from this voice is loud like a trumpet and cannot
be ignored.
That's why whenever my parents bought me a trumpet one Christmas
for my birthday, just three weeks later, they bought me a silent
mute, because the noise of a trumpet is so loud it needs to be
quietened.
You can't ignore a trumpet.
And so here's a voice like a trumpet that cannot be ignored.
John commanded to write down this instruction.
And it is a message to the seven churches that are listed in
verse 11.
And here they are on the map.
And in the weeks to come, we'll look at each of these churches
individually.
There in the red, spread across Asia Minor.
Now, it's only in verse 12 that now John turns around to the
direction of the voice and sees the first of our images for
this evening.
He sees someone who looks like a human, he says in verses 12 and
13.
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.
And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands in the midst of
the lampstands, one like a Son of man, clothed with a long robe
and with a golden sash around his chest.
Now, thankfully, the text does help us to identify what the lampstands
are.
And at the end of the chapter in verse 20, we're told that the
lampstands are the seven churches mentioned in verse 11, and
who will then appear in chapter 2.
But it is the person that he looks upon that we need Scripture
to help us understand, because the term Son of Man in this verse
is not new to Scripture.
And in it, John expresses more than simply seeing a glorified human
being.
We will of course, know that Jesus was described as the Son of
Man during his earthly ministry, and that's how he defined
himself, the Son of Man.
But what we're seeing here in this end times literature is reflected
in another book of end time literature, the Book of Daniel.
Now, I confessed last week that I had thought about doing Daniel
in the morning and Revelation in the evening, but that all felt
maybe just a little bit too much for us to have to deal with.
And so in due course, at some point, we will come to Daniel, but
we'll cover quite a fair bit whenever we go through the Book of
Revelation.
And so here, as John is seeing this and as he's writing it down,
there's a connection with the person that Daniel sees and wrote
about.
When the curtain between heaven and earth was pulled back
for him 700 years before John and Daniel wrote in Daniel 7 and
verses 13 and 14, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with clouds
of heaven, there came one like.
Again this word like a Son of Man.
And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all
peoples, nations and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.
The Son of Man that Daniel writes about is a commanding, redeeming
and glorious figure.
And Daniel's prophecy about him shaped the Jewish people's expectations
for what the Messiah would be like.
And it's no wonder that the people in Jesus day had such a hard
time believing Jesus when he referred to himself as the Son of
Man.
Because that was their only context of what Daniel had said.
Because he was someone from their vantage point who was simply
an ordinary person from a humble place of Nazareth.
He had a ragtag group of followers.
And how could this simple man be the Son of Man given dominion
and glory and kingdom, as Daniel had prophesied and even those
closest to him?
The disciples struggled to accept that Jesus was the Son of
Man.
As they saw him eating with prostitutes, sleeping on the boat,
and walking the streets with dusty feet, they had to ask themselves,
was this truly the Son of Man that they had been waiting for?
And even after Jesus ascended into heaven, it didn't come naturally
to them to imagine him as the glorified Son of Man seated at the
right hand of God.
Yet Jesus now gives John this revelation, and he tells him to write
it down.
Because he wants not only his disciples to know and John to know
for those disciples that are still living, but he wants us all
to see him for who and as he is.
He doesn't want us to have our mental picture of him stuck on how
he looked for the 33 years that he walked on earth.
John's vision shows us Jesus as he is and as he wants to be known.
It also shows us where he prefers to be, as verse 13 tells
us, in the midst of the lampstands, in the midst of the church.
As we read this, we see so many similarities with the vision
Daniel has given.
And the first one is the robe that Jesus is wearing.
He's wearing a robe of a priest, a long robe worn as part
of the duties of the shepherds of Israel, the duties that they undertook
in their leading of the worshipping community.
This was specific to them, to be worn to identify them.
And here Jesus is living as what has been said about him in Hebrews
4 and verse 15.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted
as we are yet without sin.
Sin.
So we already know the great description of Jesus as our high
priest.
And now John sees him glorified as our true high priest.
Because in Jesus, that is who he is, we have a true high priest
who intercedes between us and God, because we cannot approach God
directly.
He is a high priest who sympathizes with us because he is
one of us.
And the image continues because around his robe is a golden
sash.
But the image now changes because he's no longer a priest with
a golden sash.
This is the position of a king.
And so Jesus is here presented as our mediating priest and as our
true king.
And so he is the one to whom we look, to the one we've been waiting
for, the Messiah now revealed to us in glory.
And as we sung in that hymn, his rich wounds yet visible above
in beauty glorified.
And so here we have our true high priest and our true king, king
over all the nations.
And moving from his clothing, John goes on then to describe how
he looks, his hair and his eyes.
Verse 14 says, the hairs of his head were white like white wool,
like snow.
His eyes were like a flame of fire.
Now again, the original hearers of this turn to Daniel 7
and see the description of the Ancient of days, who is God, who's
sitting on the throne, who has clothing white as snow and the hair
of his head like pure wool.
That's how the Ancient of days is described in Daniel chapter seven.
And this tells us of the wisdom of the all knowing, or the
omniscience of the Son of Man, and assures us without doubt that
he is divine.
And for us this means that the current reality of Jesus is that
he knows exactly what to do, because he does it absolutely, purely
and right.
And you notice his eyes.
His gaze is one that is penetrating.
His eyes were like a flame of fire.
It's a gaze that penetrates our very souls.
They expose every shallowness and sinfulness.
You see, Jesus doesn't just look at us, he looks into us.
And if we're willing to hold his gaze, he will burn away what
is meaningless and frivolous and contaminating.
Now, we shouldn't connect this blazing fire coming from his eyes
as something to run away from.
Rather, we should run to him, welcoming him to burn away what is
displeasing to him.
The next image given to us is in verse 15.
And John sees Jesus feet, that they were like burnished bronze refined
in a furnace.
And once again, the reader is drawn back to Daniel and to the statue
of Nebuchadnezzar that he had constructed, that we saw in his dream.
And we're told in Daniel 2, verses 32 and 33, the head of this
image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle
and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partially of iron
and partially of clay.
Now, this statue in Daniel is different because it is a statue
that is not on a firm foundation.
Iron and clay don't mix.
The clay will eventually wash away, and the weight of the iron,
not only will it rust, but it will pull the statue down.
The difference in Revelation is that the feet are burnished bronze.
Now, bronze is a combination of iron and copper.
Iron is strong, but it rusts.
Copper won't rust, but it is pliable.
And when the two are combined into bronze, the best quality of
each is preserved.
And so what we're seeing here in Revelation is, is that the foundation
of Jesus power has been tested by fire and it will endure.
It's not going to be a crumbling statue that Nebuchadnezzar
saw.
He will stand for all eternity.
The last thing we're told about the Son of Man is that his
voice was like the roar of many waters.
Now, the loudest sound of water that I have ever heard is that
of Niagara Falls.
It is loud enough when standing above the falls, but when
you go on the Maid of the Mist, that boat that takes you as
close to the foot of the falls as you can go, then you can't even
hear another person speak.
John hears a voice of power, but it's also a voice of authority,
the glorified and enthroned voice of Jesus.
Is one that is commanding.
It's unavoidable and it's overwhelming.
You see, Jesus cannot be ignored.
And the final image that we're given is in verse or images are in
verse 16.
In his right hand he held seven stars.
From his mouth came a sharp two edged sword and his face was
like the sun shining in full strength.
The seven stars are interpreted for us in verse 20 as
the angels are of the seven churches.
But there may be more significance to this than first meets
the eye.
Jesus is holding the stars in his right hand.
The right hand was known as the hand that keeps the most precious
things closest to you.
But he's also demonstrating something that to his original hearers
was countercultural because the stars were controlled by Greek
and Roman gods and people would consult the stars to find out
their future.
In fact, we're told that not only did these Greek gods control
the stars, but they held them in their hands.
So Jesus is now doing something of an image that would
have been very clear to the original hearers, because Jesus is
demonstrating that no false God, no emperor holds them.
He does.
The universe is held together by him and in him.
As Paul confirms in Colossians 1:17, that was used for our assurance
of pardon this evening.
Next, John sees the mouth of Jesus and he doesn't just hear his
voice, because out of his mouth is a two edged sword.
And the image here is one of words of judgment.
Because as John hears Jesus speak, and by the way, this image
will come up again in Revelation.
He felt the penetrating power of His Word.
So it's not just his penetrating eyes, it's His Word.
And why should that surprise us?
Because he is the Word with a capital W. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
See, the words of Jesus are true.
The words of Jesus are unchanging.
And the words of Jesus have penetrating power.
These are the words that will challenge the seven churches, and
indeed us in their and our faithfulness to Him.
The final aspect of Jesus that John describes is his face.
And this is an image that draws us back right to Moses and
Numbers, chapter 6 and verse 24, that great Aaronic blessing.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you.
Be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you
peace.
Here John is saying Jesus heavenly glory, something that he's
seen before in the transfiguration in Matthew 17.
But the Lord Jesus looks upon us so that we may know his glory
and we may trust him.
And what is John's response?
Well, the only response that is worthy of such a glorified Savior
with his face shining with glory is to follow at his feet.
But this response of John is soon overshadowed by the action of
Jesus, because here's what Jesus does and here's what Jesus
says.
Jesus there laid his right hand, John says on me, saying, fear
not.
I am the first and the last and the living one.
I died.
And behold, I am alive forevermore.
And.
And I have the keys of death and Hades.
Jesus speaks.
And Jesus touches John and says to him that he is seeing his
true Savior.
You see, John is seeing who Jesus is differently, yes, but who
he presently is.
And he's told to fear not such beautiful and wonderful words.
You see, the Gospel is not a message of fear, but it is a message
of love that drives out fear.
The Gospel is a message that should draw us to the Savior's love
so that we can know it and respond to it.
And Jesus goes on to confirm his divine nature and assures John
and the churches that death no more has the hold over them.
Their faith in Jesus leads them to eternal life and not eternal
death.
So there is nothing to fear, for Jesus has done it all.
This isn't going to be one of those conclusions that's going to
tie everything up so neatly.
Because I hope that as we've gone through this and seen what John
has seen and understanding it, we will see Jesus for who he currently
is.
Not as who he will be, but in a prophetic word, who he is to us
now.
He is the one of authority, commanding authority.
His words penetrate, as does his gaze.
But this is nothing to fear because Christ still puts his hand
on us and says, fear not.
And so I wonder tonight, do you know the reality of who Jesus
is?
He's been presented to us and by the way he's been described in
this passage, and it is complete.
This is who he is in his completeness.
He is our perfect Savior and has his best for his people.
I wonder if this is the Jesus that you know.
I wonder, does this revelation of Jesus as he presently is, is it
the Jesus that you're looking forward to meeting and the Jesus
that you are running to for salvation?
Because let's remind ourselves of what the end of this book says,
that he is coming soon in chapter 22 and verse 12.
And so we must turn to him each and every day to know him for
who he truly is.
See, we live in a world where everything is reduced so we can take
it in quickly and easily.
Instead of reducing Jesus to simplified, understandable, manageable
terms.
The vision that John was given and wrote down for us expands our
vision and engages our imagination.
It causes us to open ourselves up to someone bigger and grander
and more captivating and commanding than we've ever seen before.
And so we find ourselves when we see this Jesus with great glorious
hope.
Hope by seeing the glorified Christ.
Don't mistake his identity for anything other than God's glory.
Don't stumble around in the darkness as I did in the Barbican
car park making a fool of myself.
Whenever we have Jesus presented to us so that indeed we
would have glorious hope, don't run from Him.
Yes, his eyes are penetrating, his voice is loud, but he is absolute
truth.
He is is the one who puts his hand on us and says, fear not.
I have overcome the world and you are mine.
Will you run to this Jesus?
Will you run to him and delight in him as your Savior forevermore?
Let's pray.
Our Father, thank you.
That Jesus is truly Lord of all.
And we see this in how he is presented to us in Revelation 1 this
evening.
Thank you.
That Jesus is the One who calls us to gaze upon him, to see
him as the glorified Christ.
Lord, may we not fear.
But may we run and know his grace and his love so that we will
be sure and certain of a Savior who is ours.
But Father, we must admit our sin, we must admit our wrong so that
we may know the great love of the Savior.
So help us to respond well to our great Lord.
This night we pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
Sam.