The Reality of Jesus: An Unveiling of Our Glorious Hope - Glorious Hope | Studies in Revelation

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

Daniel 2:32

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

Colossians 1:17

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.

Numbers 6 · chapter mention

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.