Christ is Glorious

[00:00:00] Lord our God, we pray that you would speak by your word to us, revealing again how glorious you, Christ our Lord, are. That as John saw you in this chapter of revelation one and was undone, would we too be undone, but then comforted by your voice, your touch, your nearness, and your comfort to us, speak to us by your word. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. [00:00:28] And we'll hear now the passage for our message this evening. Revelation, chapter one, verses nine through 20. [00:00:37] Let me get there and we'll read that. [00:00:45] I'm hearing now the word of the Lord. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in. Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet, saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrda and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands. And 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. The hairs of his head were white like wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. 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. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and hades. Write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw on my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches, and this is the word of the Lord. And so would you be seated now, as we hear from God's word. [00:02:31] So this fall with our UF campus ministry, we've been going through the book of Revelation. And so you might wonder, why go through the book of Revelation with a group of college students. Again, there's much more foundational things we could go through. We've gone through psalms before and the Gospel of Mark. But I think especially as we are coming into a season like this, which, again, it feels like these seasons are here all the time, right? That there is war going on around us. We just prayed for what is going on in Israel, in Lebanon, in Gaza, the one year anniversary of the strike into Israel by Hamas. Wars continuing on in Ukraine and in Russia. Those that are going on in places beyond that, there is war and unrest abroad. There are also wars, unrests, hurricanes, shootings on campus, things right in our neighborhood, in our nation, as well, of, again, of unrest, of tumult, of things being off place. And then not only outside of us, but even hearing from you guys within this group, there are people with needs of surgeries that are going on again, of stem cell things, of sicknesses within us, and not only those, but also doubts and fears and struggles and anxieties. And I think what we need to hear in the midst of all this is what the book of revelation is reminding us, that in the midst of all of this tumult that has gone on for thousands of years, Jesus reigns upon the throne. [00:04:01] He is the one who holds the world in his hands, that his faithfulness is great. [00:04:07] And I can tell you that we've had a lot of questions. We've gone through chapter five so far this week. We'll dig into the seven seals going forward in revelation six. It's gonna get more challenging for us, me, as I seek to teach and the questions I'll receive from students. But I think this message is one again that we need to hear of what is going on. And I can say it's been a really fun and fruitful first, what, five, six weeks this semester? [00:04:33] Gosh, we had a great time gathering. We've had a couple pool parties, which it feels like we could have another one now as the weather drags on in the hundreds into October, wondering when it will cool down. We've had a fun time at those. We've had a number of small groups going on. But I want to share about one student. His name is Ainsley. I met him at a club fair a couple years ago, and he walked up, and, you know, the thing about college students, they have very keen interests about certain things. And so he walked up and started talking to one of our student leaders, who has now graduated this past year, and they started talking about soil science and about the role in which manure, regenerative farming, all of these things and talked for about 45 minutes first, and then the next 30 minutes, I talked with him about the gospel. He was a guy who had grown up in a catholic church. But I just saw him again this past week, and I think this is the hope of goal of what goes on, that he had grown up in a catholic church. He had served in the military. But now, just this past week, he was talking to his friends about the hope and peace that Jesus gives in the midst of their frustrations and trials. And so the ministry of just seeing God at work in those places again in the midst of all this tumult of what is going on, I think, is why we need to hear this word again for us tonight. And so a quick note in apocalyptic literature, I know when you hear the word apocalypse, what comes to mind first might be zombies. That happened to one of our students said that of these end times things, these crazy, an asteroid coming to destroy the earth, all these big things happening. But what does the term actually mean? Apocalypsis, the term that's there means to be revealed, unveiled. And so what is going on is there is an unveiling of what is happening by John and what he is seeing in a vision from God. And then another note is that one of the main messages of the book of revelation is things are not as they seem, or even better, things are not only as they seem. We see things around us in the physical world, and we can see the struggles there. But there is a whole spiritual world beyond us and a world in which, again, the Lord is reigning here and now, and he is going to return to make all things right. And that is 100% true, even as it feels like, it sounds like, it looks like we're completely out of control. It's like, God, have you left the building? Are you gone? What's going on here? But he remains here. And what we'll look at this evening in this passage is that there is great encouragement as we see Jesus for who he is. We encounter him in this spot. And so we'll start by looking at the suffering of John that he was going under. So this passage begins, John identifying himself in verse nine. [00:07:16] Again, the first eight verses were kind of a prologue, talking about who Jesus is, and then a greeting. But here he says, I am John, your brother and your partner in the tribulation. So I am one who is in the midst of persecution myself. And he had been exiled to the island of Patmos. Let me just give you a bit of an account of what was going on at this time that the year was probably around 80, 95 or so. This is the same John, the beloved disciple who had stuck with Jesus all the way to the cross. [00:07:49] He is one who is led by him, went with Peter and James and John to see the transfiguration, all these various moments. But here, now, at this point, the persecution upon the church has grown. And it had begun, I guess not begun, but it had picked up with Nero in 67 as he fed christians the lions. Peter and Paul were put to death. Around that time, there were others that came, but now, likely, domitian was the emperor. And as happens when there is an insecure leader with tremendous power, there often is pain and persecution put upon any threat to them. And John, the people of God, the people of the early church were those who would not say the words, caesar is lord. Domitian had said, you must say this, or else I will either put you in jail or put you to death. And they would not. They would say their creed. No, only Jesus is lord. And many were put to death. At this time, John was exiled. Why? [00:08:55] Likely because Domitian feared that he would become like a martyr and lead to an uprising if they put him to death. But here he has been exiled. The people that he loves are on the mainland, and he is wondering, God, why am I here? What do you have for me? How can I be of encouragement? And this is the word that God gives him to encourage the church to persevere, encourages them to continue on in this time. [00:09:21] And so he is there, exiled, and he receives the word of God. [00:09:29] And again, just to say a couple things about this, like, John was incredibly faithful to hold on to what was true right, to stand in there, to risk being set aside, sent to another island. And it does make me even pause as a pastor, as a campuse minister, is, gosh, would I be willing to send off. To be sent off to an island because I follow Jesus, right? Would I be willing to do that for my following of him? And another question it brings is, if that did happen to me, would I trust that Jesus would remain just as near to me and just as true in the midst of that spot? And it's the place where we begin in this. So John is there on the island of Patmos, suffering on account Jesus. And then he receives this vision. It says he was in the spirit on the Lord's day, so he was likely gathering in some way on the Lord's day, the first day of the week, Sunday, kind of like we are, although he was on an island with. With guards around him, perhaps other prisoners that were there. And then he heard a voice behind him. And so he was not only not alone, but he heard something. And it says it sounded like a trumpet, a loud noise behind him saying these things. Write what you see into a book and send it to the seven churches. These seven churches are on the west side of Turkey. Likely this letter would have been sent to them in the order that they're listed. Ephesus, Smyrna, pergamum. But as an encouragement to them in the midst of their suffering, John is, what John is saying was going to say is that Jesus is near to them and he knows their suffering, that he is faithful to them. [00:11:15] And again, it does make me wonder. This is the same John, as I mentioned, that saw Jesus turn water into wine, that he saw Jesus drive money changers out of the temple, that he saw Jesus feed the 5000. He saw him calm the storm with a word. He saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. He saw him outside the empty tomb. And yet kind of what is being communicated here. John had seen all those things in the past, but he needed to see Jesus as he is now, to be encouraged in the midst of what was there. And he needed to write of that, to encourage the church that was present and also the church to come going forward in the midst of their fears, in the midst of their trials, in the midst of their struggles. And so this, again, this passage to us here is meant to give us great encouragement to see who Jesus is. And so the passage goes on to show who Jesus is now. And it says, it gives a number of descriptors of who Jesus is. And we'll just be on them, speak about them, just for a minute. So I heard a voice like the sound of a trumpet. I turned to see the voice. [00:12:18] It is kind of interesting question there of like, I wonder if the soldiers heard the same thing or if anybody else heard it, or if you could just imagine those around being like, John, what is going on? You are turning around to face another direction and I don't hear anything. Are you crazy? And yet he was hearing the voice of God. And it describes the one who is there. I turn to see the voice, and in the midst of the lamp stands one like a son of man. This is a Daniel type language of the Lord, the Messiah, Jesus who was to come, the one who would be given a dominion and glory and a kingdom out of Daniel seven. And it goes on to speak of him. And it says that, where is he at? [00:12:58] In the midst of the lampstands. He is there amongst the lampstands. And again, the passage ahead says the lampstands are the churches. So that he is present there with the churches. And what is he doing? He is clothed in a long robe, a golden sash around his chest. He is wearing the robe of a priest. He has a golden sash doing the work of a kingdom. The son of man is there as the one who has made the sacrifice for all. The one who is the king who reigns there and begins to describe him in further way. Again, using symbolism. The hairs of his head were white like wool, like snow. This is describing his wisdom. It says his eyes were a flame of fire. [00:13:39] His eyes are looking, seeing everything going on. If you've read or seen the lord of the Rings, think of the eye of Sauron looking out. Jesus sees it all not in a condemnatory way, but in a sense of delighting to see all those who have trusted in him. And also, I guess you could say that, the fury of his wrath desiring to remove those that are speaking against him. But he is there with a penetrating gaze that can see us, each of us, to the bottom, yet loves us to the moon and back. So his eyes are there, a penetrating gaze. And it talks about his feet, burnished like bronze, a powerful foundation that he is on, his voice like the roar of waters. Imagine if you've gone to, I guess for you guys here, if you've gone to see a waterfall, if you've been present in a loud monsoon as it comes through when all of a sudden you just hear the pour of the rain and you can't hear anything else. The voice of the son of man speaking loudly, overwhelming everything else. [00:14:38] And then it describes him. In his right hand he held the seven stars. [00:14:43] Those are the angels, likely those that have gone before us. The stars, the angels, the church before us. And he holds them our great hope of where we will go. And then it goes on that from his mouth came a two edged sword that the word of God going out meant to be a metaphor, a picture of judgment, of dividing what is true from what is a lie from what is false. And there he is, present. And you've got to think, well, you not only think, you know, that John was just like, whoa, what have I just seen? Right? Because how does the passage go on? It says that when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. So John was just completely undone at seeing the glory of the Lord Jesus upon the throne. Completely undone. Woe is me, for I am undone. [00:15:45] And isn't this the way that anybody who has seen Jesus for who he is, has responded. It's the story of Isaiah in chapter six, when he saw the Lord, the story of Daniel in chapter ten, he was undone. The picture of us at various points when we understand how great, how incredible, how holy, how mighty, how awesome God is and how we are not, that we can't help but say, whoa, I am undone, I am not worthy, and on my own God, I would have nothing to do with you. [00:16:18] And this is where you see the beauty of this passage is because what happens next, it says, he laid his right hand on me. [00:16:31] And gosh, I wish that Jesus would lay his right hand upon us in that same way when I was experiencing those things right. [00:16:39] But what we know from this and from the words of Jesus is that he says, I am with you always. [00:16:51] I will put my spirit inside of you. I will be near to you in the midst of your sense of feeling undone, that I will reach out and touch you and put my hand upon you. [00:17:08] And I think this place where John went and a place that I hope that we all go to it at various points. Again, I don't think we are going to experience this sort of thing in the same way as John did. This is a supernatural revelation of God, inspiring his word to him. But when we do get a sense of who God is, it should bring us to a spot where again we are undone, where we can be there in one sense and just be so focused upon him that all the other pains and struggles of the world can fade away for a moment. We can say, gosh, I no longer have to prove myself to my students. I say, you no longer have to prove yourself through your grades, to your parents or to your professor. You no longer have to prove yourself to your boss through your work. You no longer have to prove yourself to your family, to your parents, to whoever it is around. You no longer have to do enough to be known. The only thing that matters when you see Jesus for who he is is him, his glory, his beauty, his wonder. And that is what the Lord wants John to see. And not only him, but the church of that time in the church today, in the midst of all of these, again, pains, anxieties, things within you, things outside of you, to see him for who he is and say, lord, you're in control. [00:18:30] Help me to know that and trust that as my life feels like it is shaking, it is falling apart, as I am undone before you. [00:18:41] And it goes on from here. Not only is hedgest he touched, and I guess, you know, we've sung. Gosh, I was just reading about comfort earlier today in preparations for this upcoming week. But the word comfort, that is, it's not stated here directly, but the comfort that is shown. Comfort basically means come. And latin means with. And forte is strong, so it is a strength with you. And so Jesus the Lord reaches out and touches John and gives him great comfort and then speaks a word of comfort. So not only is it through that touch that's there, but it's the voice that says these things. He says, fear not. The end of verse 17. Fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one. I died. And behold, I am alive forever. And I have the keys of death and Hades. [00:19:34] He is saying, I have won the victory. The battle is over. Gosh. There are still skirmishes that are going on, John, amongst the emperors, amongst those that are. That are struggling, they're putting others in persecution, but I have defeated them. I have died and I have risen, and I've got the keys to death in Hades. Nobody can lock it up, that I can't let anybody out. Nobody can keep me from restoring and bringing back those that are mine. I. Nothing can stop my plan from happening. [00:20:07] You need not fear because of what I have done. I have gone down into the grips of hell and defeated death, that I might give you new life. And you've got to just wonder again what sort of comfort and confidence that gave to John. Again, remember, he's off on an island on his own. He can't see or hear from those that he loves. He's writing this letter. And again, this is, you know, I don't know if this is 100% true, but one of the commentators thinks that one of the reasons that revelation has so many images is one is it's things that are beyond what we can see and know. Another is the guards would have no idea how to censor this message, right? They would have no idea. How do you. How do you block this? But these are images that were used from. From Daniel, that were used from Isaiah, from other places. Was there? And you gotta imagine what sort of comfort John experienced hearing these words of the Lord, that I am in charge of death. And the place you go when you die, you no longer have to be afraid of that. And you no longer need to be afraid that someone will go there prematurely, apart from my hands. And you will know that I love you in the midst of that. [00:21:28] And we don't know. John very likely died there on Patmos, after he had sent this letter. [00:21:34] But the encouragement that this gave to olit church in that first century, in the centuries that have come since, has been tremendous. Why? Because it speaks of the victory of the Lord in that place. [00:21:47] And I've got to say, it's a much different picture for me. I mentioned at the beginning I have three little girls. But one of the things that I really love about being a dad is the chance that I have to offer them comfort. And when they are scared, whether it be from a show or again, that monsoon, a thunderstorm, the thunder that shakes, how delightful it is to bring them into my arms and give comfort to my girls. And I feel like that is just a small, very small taste of what it's like for me when I get freaked out of my mind about what's going to happen in my life. And I can run into the arms of the Lord and he can wrap himself, his arms around me again. It said that he is present amongst the lampstand. He is present here with us. He is near to us, speaking truth to us, saying, don't be afraid. I. I've got the keys to death and hades. The most powerful things this world has. I have defeated them. [00:22:49] Nothing can keep me from doing my will. [00:22:57] And I think it just does make me just come to a place again of worship of the Lord, that he is the one who holds our lives in his hands, who is the one again who can open those gates. Cause I'm guessing for many of you like me, this past spring, my grandma had lived a long, beautiful life, and she passed away. [00:23:24] And even as we were doing the hymn sing ahead of time, I grew up in a lutheran church where we would regularly sing. It was from a, you know, a lutheran hymnal very much like this, though, with the organ playing. And we were singing. I remember singing of the father's love, begotten, great is thy faithfulness. Some of these beautiful, wonderful hymns. And I so grieve that my grandma is no longer here on this earth with me. And yet the words of truth that are spoken here is, gosh, even though she has died, Jesus has defeated death, and she is with him right now, and that I will go to be with her because of what Jesus has done for me. [00:24:05] And so as you go through all sorts of pains, of sorrows, of struggles in this life, the great hope that we have pictured here in revelation is that our God is there with us, that he is there comforting us by his touch, that he is there speaking to us his truth, and that he is victorious over it all. [00:24:28] Would you see him be amazed by him back oh, gosh. When I was in college, been a number of years ago. We'll close with this. I went on a. On a hike up bishop's peak. It's on the. It's in San Luis Obispo, California. I don't know if any of you have been there, but it's a beautiful kind of coastal area. And we went out on an early Saturday morning. It was probably about early for our college students. So probably like 07:00 a.m. 08:00 a.m. maybe so, you know, that time, and it was a really foggy day, and I had gone up, I'd hiked up that peak. It's about, you know, a thousand foot climb, a few mile hike, and the whole time up going to the top, we were caught in the fog. [00:25:10] And it was. We couldn't see farther than a few steps ahead of us, there was. And we were just, you know, working through, slogging our way, you know, misty cold wetland. I hard to imagine in Tucson right now, but that's what was going on right there. And we just kept on going to the top, and it felt like, gosh, we're just gonna get to the top and be stuck in the fog. Is it just gonna be the same thing? Where is it even gonna be worth the energy that we put in here? And what happened once we got, there's this rocky area on top, and probably within the last, I don't know, last quarter mile of the hike, we began to reach the top of the fog. And we got to the point where we were up above the clouds, and we could see the sunrise and all sorts of beautiful colors crossing the sky. And what we could remember in that moment could know was the beauty, the glory, and the wonder of our God, of our creation. The light was clear at that point, but we went through a lot of fog to get there. And I think what the picture of what John is experiencing, what we are experiencing, it can feel like in this life, as we long for Jesus to come back and feel like we're just in the fog, we are stuck in the mist. It doesn't feel good. We don't see the full beauty and the glory of what is there, but what John hopes to communicate through this book is to see. Let me just lift your eyes up above all of these things. And would you see the beauty, the glory, the wonder, the light, the life that is shown in Jesus? [00:26:46] It doesn't mean the fog isn't real. We still will go through it, but the light is true. The victory of Christ is real. [00:26:54] And if we can grab onto that as he is holding onto us, it can give us great hope, great perseverance, great encouragement to go on through these days. [00:27:06] Because we trust that he reigns. He has defeated sin. He has defeated death. He is our God. He is near to us and we are his. [00:27:15] And this is the good news. Let me pray for us. Lord, our God, we thank you that you are near to us. That as we go through all these various pains, struggles within us, around us, in our world, we trust you, Lord, that you are king, that you reign. And God, we don't always know what you are doing, but we trust that you have defeated death, you have defeated sin. You have the victory over it. And you can give new life to us. Would you speak your words of comfort over us again this evening? Would you remind us that you alone are our hope for salvation? [00:27:58] Would you remind us how good it is to be your beloved children? [00:28:04] And would you give us strength to endure whatever comes our way, knowing that you have the victory? We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.