Sermon Series: All things new - The Revelation of Jesus Christ (3) Passage: Revelation 1:9-29

Title: The God who is with us Preacher: Dan Weyerhaeuser

Date: 9.30.12 John, the last living disciple of Jesus, wrote the book of Revelation, under the command of Jesus, to describe for the church the vision God gave to him one Sabbath while he was imprisoned on the Island of Patmos just off the coast of modern day Turkey. It is a picture book to be seen that shows us visually that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, has been installed as Ruler over all God has made and is making all things new. It is a book that will help you!

1:1-8 were an introduction to that story. It is as if John is our tour guide who has led us to the door of this vision and, pausing just before he opens the door, turns and looks us in the eye and says, “What I am about to show you will change your Christian life! You will not only hear, but SEE the triumph of the Lamb of God.”

Promise of our passage: Jesus, God’s glorious King, is in our midst and on the move The promise of this passage will evoke absolute humility and heavenly boldness. It will evoke comfort as

well as give strength. It will help the timid Christian be bold and the double-minded Christian be faithful. As John begins his story, he clarifies about… 1. The profession of Christ - Following Christ is a radical thing (v. 9)

John begins... 1:9 I , John, your brother and partner

As he writes to Christians in the 7 churches, it is not a surprise that he identifies himself as their brother and partner. Nor is it surprising He includes… your brother and partner in…the kingdom…that are in Jesus,

Like the Christians to whom he writes, and us as well, in John’s salvation, he declared his faith and allegiance to Jesus as King of his life and in submitting by faith to the King, He became a citizen of the Kingdom of God. They are brothers and partners in that Kingdom.

What MAY come as a surprise is that in becoming partners in that Kingdom, they also became… your brother and partner in THE tribulation and the kingdom and THE patient endurance that ARE in Jesus,

John doesn’t say “the tribulation that MIGHT be a part of the Kingdom. He says, THE tribulation and the Kingdom and THE patient endurance ARE in Jesus. These go with the territory. This explains why John… was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

John was exiled because He had spoken the Word of God and described the testimony of the life of Jesus and was arrested as a seditionist by the Romans and imprisoned for it. In this way, John begins to introduce to the reader the theme of conflict that Revelation will describe. Becoming a follower of Christ is a radical thing. In certain places at certain times in history, it can land you in jail or worse. Revelation tells the story of the war that satan and his forces are waging upon the God, His angels, and His people and the final defeat of satan by the power of God through Christ. John tells us that it was THAT battle that was behind his imprisonment and will be behind much that happens in the world until it is all over.

Truth: One startling truth of the Bible was that you were in it, whether you knew it or not, before Christ because then you were still an object of His wrath. If you are in Christ, He has made you not only a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven but a son or daughter of God! But in this He also united you to His purposes in the world to bring the reign of evil to an end and establish the Kingdom of God in all of the creation. This battle raged during John’s days and will rage more and more strongly until the return of Christ. POINT: And so it was a radical thing you did in becoming a follower of Christ because you entered a battle!

PA There are two mistakes Christians can make when it comes to this conflict. 1) Defensiveness: Some Christians take a defensive posture towards society. Quick to notice how increasingly secular and

2 unwelcoming to a Christian world view our culture is becoming, they want to build “walls,” if not physically through monasteries, emotionally and relationally. They see how bad the world has become and withdraw.

Problem with this – While there IS a war underway and we need to be ready for it, we are also here on a mission that requires for us to be in the middle of the people of the world to share the love and message of Christ in order to win people to Christ! In Revelation, Christians are constantly called witnesses and the churches are lampstands whose identity is to show to those in darkness the light of the gospel of Christ! We do not do that well if every chance we get we retreat to live in a bunkered existence.

Christ was not that way! He was found in the company of “sinners” so much that He was called by some a “drunkard (Lk 7:34)” through guilt by association. If there is a war, what hope to people in our world have of knowing Christ if we don’t get into their world wisely and seek to “be all things to all men so that we might win some?” Somehow, without being naive, we have to not be defensive.

2) Denial: Other Christians dismiss those who take a “defensive” posture as paranoid, and live as if their Christian faith is an enhancement to their happy American lifestyle, oblivious to the fact that a war is raging in the heavenly realms all around. Problem with this – Books like Revelation are stark reminders that much more spiritual warfare is going on than they are aware of and that the ultimate “war of the worlds” is real and underway and we are playing for keeps. Christ’s call to be His is so radical, sides have to be chosen. Jesus would say in Matt. 12:30, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” There is no middle ground when it comes to allegiance to Christ.

Truth – I don’t think most people in the world are diabolically scheming against Christians and the church and I’m not sure it is helpful to speak as if they were. I do think, though, that they have bought into a system of values that is on an absolute collision course with the values and commands of the Kingdom of God and those values do collide at points such that sides are taken that can become extreme. We need to be prepared for this.

One example is the situation of Revelation. You’ve heard of Roman persecution of Christians… Q: What did the Roman soldiers and government have against Christians? A little history -

When Julius Caesar died in 60 BC, the Roman republic died too. Octavious became emperor and turned Rome into a dictatorship. Years later in 65 ad when Nero committed suicide, three would-be emperors came into Rome with their armies and threatened to tear Rome apart. Vespasian, a key General of Rome, saved Rome from civil war. But he was not from a senatorial family and could not become Emperor. Vespasian’s son ruled two years, and then Domitian.

But Domitian had a problem. He was not, himself, a warrior, and so did not command the same respect as his father. As a result, Domitian ordered emperor worship as a means of forcing the loyalty of Rome. Civil pressure was put upon ALL people, including Christians, to participate in guild banquets that included giving worship to Caesar. This was a big deal. To not participate was to identify oneself as an enemy combatant of the state. And to the Romans, THAT meant you were guilty of treason. For the Christians, this was a VERY REAL threat! By the writing of Revelation, Antipas had already been martyred. MANY more were about to be. Using the

logic of the world, Rome tried by torturous force to compel Christians to renounce their faith. (Eventually under Roman rule, Christians were impaled, covered in pitch and used as torches to illuminate chariot races, they were fed to lions, they were crucified in such numbers as to line the highways leading to Rome.)

All these are expressions of a spiritual battle. And while Rome may be gone, the spirit behind it is not. In the world today, such things still exist. And we should not be surprised if we encounter it.

Of course this was no surprise to the writers of the Bible. Paul cautioned Timothy … 2Tim. 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, And Jesus declared, John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. POINT I’m making in this is that following Christ means a radical identification with Him that can put you

at odds with the people and agendas of our world. None of us will likely be called upon to kiss and idol of our president and declare allegiance to him or be killed. But to follow Christ in this life WILL mean living in this world with an agenda that is absolutely contrary to those around you. It is a radical thing to follow Christ. John knows it, and brings us Revelation to help us in it!

When this happens, what help do Christians HAVE to maintain their testimony for Christ? These are PRECISELY the questions Revelation answers. We are helped as John shows us… 2. The placement of Christ – Jesus is among His people (v. 12-13a)

3 John continues his story… 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice l ike a

trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches… I heard behind me a loud voice, John tells us, (unlike anything I’d ever heard before but it was something)

LIKE a trumpet… (the closer John will get to describing Jesus, the less certain his language will become). 12 Then I turned to see the voice (How do you SEE… a VOICE?) that was speaking to me, and

on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one l ike a son of man,

Read the Bible slowly and you will see important things! When John turned around, what did he see first? If you answered Jesus, you would be wrong. FIRST John saw seven golden lampstands. V. 20 it is clear that those lampstands are the 7 churches to which Jesus commands John to write. Before John saw THIS Jesus, he saw the church.

Rev 4:1 John WILL BE called up to heaven to see what WILL take place in the future. But in Rev 1-3 John is living in our era, after Pentecost and before Jesus’ return, (which Acts 2:17, 2 Tim 3:1 and Heb 1:2 call the last days.) And in THESE days, if you turn to see Christ, what you see first is the church. John saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like the Son of man. Of course John has been given spiritual eyes here to see what cannot be seen by the naked eye. But this is an ASTONISHING declaration… that in the midst of Christ’s Church is Christ Himself and WE are the visible representation of Him to the world!

PA To Christians 1) persecuted to press them to deny their faith, or 2) seduced to be deceived into abandoning their faith, it is LIFE-GIVING truth to realize that Jesus is in our midst! “What do we have to lean on in the face of hostility or seduction? A: Jesus, Who is with us!!!! ROME made one slight miscalculation in trying to persecute the church into non-existence. Jesus Himself was with the believers who, because of the persecution, clung to Him all the more tightly and found His love to be better than life. The more Rome tried to persecute the church, the faster it grew! A person might fairly ask, “So? How does HE help? (Story told by Tim Keller) Tom Skinner, a pastor who grew up and then came back to minister in Harlem, talked about attending Sunday School before becoming a Christian. He remembered seeing pictures of Jesus where he was meek and mild and serene, thinking, “That boy wouldn’t make it 10 minutes in my neighborhood!” What is Jesus REALLY like?! 3. The Person of Jesus – Jesus is glorious and on the move (v. 13b-16)

What follows is not so much John’s description of what Jesus LOOKS like as it is his description of what Jesus IS like (Johnson).

I saw one l ike a son of man, If you’ve read the Book of Daniel, THIS line will get your attention. Daniel 7, written 600 years before,

describes a vision Daniel had… Dan. 7:13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one l ike a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; al l peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that wil l not pass away, and his kingdom is one that wil l never be destroyed.

The same was true in Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel 1. Both saw one like the Son of man Who would one day come and bring with Him the presence and rule of God. And now John saw the Son of Man as well. However there is one MAJOR difference here. Where both Daniel and Ezekiel saw the Son of Man at a great distance, JOHN sees the Son of Man standing beside him. On THIS day, on this side of the cross and resurrection, the Son of Man reaches out with His nail pierced hand and touches His old friend and speaks to Him. POINT: JESUS is the promised Son of Man whom all peoples and nations will worship. (Some will worship in joy, others will worship in fear, but all will worship Him!)

John continues. He was... clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

Jesus wore the garments of Priest. How good it is that THIS is our High Priest! John then begins to describe things about the Jesus Who is with us, things that will help us overcome the world.

4 He has all wisdom 14 The hairs of his head were white, l ike white wool, l ike snow. In the Bible, white hair is a sign of wisdom because it accompanies people who have lived a long time. As

John looked at Jesus he KNEW this Jesus had all wisdom. Once you consulted with Christ, there was no other wisdom to find! What He thought and said was the end of every matter.

PA This is a good thing to remember when we don’t get AT ALL why things are happening as they are. While we might not understand, HE knows what He is doing! If you’ve ever wondered, “WHY, Jesus? Why has this happened or that happened?” and John were standing beside you, John would say, “I may not know the details, but trust me, He knows what He is doing. The One in your midst has all wisdom!”

He sees everything His eyes were l ike a flame of fire, John remembered looking into the eyes that looked back at Him and he knew that there is nothing this

Jesus did not see! No darkness could conceal a thing from Him. Jesus’ eyes are like a flame of fire – His eyes see with their own illumination. You may be able to conceal from people where you feet have taken you or what your hands have done or what your eyes have seen. But if you were with John and said, “No one knows what I have done” John would look you in the eye and assure you, “Jesus does!”

PA Not only does this tell us that everything we do or face is within His attention, but it also assures us that ever evil deed has been seen by God. And for the persecuted church, what a good thing it is to know that all evil has been seen by Christ and will be brought to account – and that is HIS job, not mine.

HE impacts His surrounding, not the other way around. 15 his feet were l ike burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, What do we learn about Jesus from the fact that His feet were like molten bronze? His feet are the contact

point where He touches earth. Q: What happens to your feet when you walk around barefoot? (Your feet get dirty). Not Jesus! Instead of the ground soiling His feet, His footprint incinerates any dirt that He touches. Question: What happens to dirt when it touches molten metal? POINT: Jesus surroundings do not impact Him – He impacts His surroundings! Mediate on these images. Q: Did John feel heat from the feet of Jesus? I ask because I was looking for a visual of this and found this… POINT: His feet were LIKE molten bronze…

His voice is torrential in power and his voice was l ike the roar of many waters. When John heard the voice of Jesus he felt the power of God in His voice! It felt to him like the roar of

many waters. Anyone ever been to the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls? Two things are impressive. 1) It is loud (you cannot ignore its volume). John explains that there is a roar to Jesus’ voice, because of the might and force behind it. 2) But more, when John heard Jesus speak in v. 11, he felt like the voice of Jesus might sweep Him away.

His word is the final word 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, v. 20 tells us that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. No one is entirely sure who these

are. 1) Some believe they are specific angels given charge over specific churches. 2) Some believe they are the entire host of angels because John numbers “7” of them. 3) Because the word “angel” means “messenger,” many believe these are the pastors of the 7 churches (freaks me out a little bit ). No matter who, Jesus holds them in his right hand. In this spiritual war that is underway, who exactly is going to take them away from Christ? How does a demon respond when satan gives him the order to snatch someone from Jesus’ hand?!

Jesus word is the final word from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword,

John knew that when Jesus would speak a word of judgment, evil would experience His voice like a sword striking. The Word of Jesus would judge. Luther picks up on this when

The prince of darkness, grim, we tremble not for him, his rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure, one little word shall fell him! Luther was helped by passages like this one. And it emboldened him to stand fast. Jesus radiated the glory of God

5 and his face was l ike the sun shining in full strength. As John looked at the face of Jesus, He stared directly into the glory of God revealed in His face. POINT: If

you look directly at the sun in full strength, it will be the last thing that you see. It will burn your retinas (Keller). To look into the face of God will kill you! (Moses was denied this!) But on this side of redemption, this is our future! Can we see how the presence of THIS Jesus in the midst of the Church and also our lives changes EVERYTHING! Whether it is a threat if we don’t deny Christ or temptation to abandon Christ in pursuit of sin, remembering THIS Jesus with us enables us to stand fast as Christians!

CLARIFICATION; One obvious note – the presence of THIS Jesus clearly does not mean in this life, that we will not face evil. Just the opposite – suffering and patient endurance are PRECISELY what we face in this world. But God will use these for His purposes. Take John – the Roman Authorities placed him on Patmos in order to stop the effect of his ministry and while he was there, Jesus gave him the Revelation which would help millions of Christians stand strong in the face of Roman attack! God uses everything for good (a good that could not be accomplished without suffering). But when we face it, we do so with HIM beside us and in us, trusting He is using us as His witness! This is no different than Jesus who WON Redemption through his suffering and death! One final thing to see… 4. The Purpose of Jesus – Make God’s redemption known. (v. 17-20).

In this text, John also opens up to us why Jesus came and shared the revelation. This is obvious in John’s reaction to Jesus. John saw Jesus in glory and wrote about what He saw. How did John respond?

Rev. 1:17 When I saw him, I fel l at his feet as though dead. Why was THIS John’s response? John knew Jesus! He was one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles, and a writer of

Scripture where the Holy Spirit had carried him along. John was the disciple “Jesus loved!” He was on Patmos precisely because of his faithful testimony and preaching about Christ. We might say that John was a holy man. AND YET when He saw Jesus in holy glory, he fell as Jesus’ feet as though dead.

A: Because God is holy! Even though John was a holy man, he was not sinless and could not bear the holiness of God. Spanning this infinite barrier is what Christ came to do! He was able to do this because Jesus is God incarnate.

If it hasn’t been clear so far, let me just state it plainly. Not only does Jesus reflect the holiness of God – He IS God! This passage is one of the clearest in the Bible to make this known. There are two clear ways we know! First, every one of the images of Jesus in v. 14-16 describes an attribute ascribed to GOD in the OT. I won’t elaborate other than to point you to the chart in your sermon notes.

Rev  1:12-­‐16   Ez  1:25-­‐28   Dan  10:5-­‐6   Dan  7:9-­‐10   Dan  7:13-­‐14  Son  of  man   Like  that  of  a  man   A  man     Son  of  man  Robe     Linen  robe      Gold  sash     Gold  sash      White  hair       White  hair    Eyes  like  fire   Fire   Eyes  like  flame   fire    Feel  like  bronze   Glowing  metal   Gleaming  bronze      Voice  like  rushing  water  

Sound  like  rushing  water  

Sound  of  a  multitude  

   

Face  like  the  sun   Radiance   Like  lightening      

Second, when Jesus declares, I am the first and the last, A student of the Old Testament may recall

Is. 44:6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no God.

Here, beside John, stands the LORD in the person of Jesus. Clearly Jesus came to restore. He had accomplished redemption in the cross and resurrection. Now in Revelation He will come to apply that redemption. We see this when…

But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not,

6 The hand that reached out was a pierced had. This Jesus is crossing the barrier to make a way to God. He

had come to Redeem and restore. He is… 18 …the l iving one. I died (having bore the sin and death and judgment of God’s people), and

behold I am alive forevermore (through the resurrection), and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

He has come to deal with the great problem of our sin and opens the way to life! Question: If Jesus is each of these, what enemy might we face who poses a threat to us?

This is the redemption Jesus came to bring, and v. 19 he wants John to make it known. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to

take place after this.

Application 1) Remember the presence of Christ & worship the Christ Who is present! This will help you 1) bear up

under suffering for Christ, as well as 2) be kept from giving in to temptation in the word. Tom Skinner, from Harlem, who said of the Jesus he remembered from S.S. “I don’t know who that guy is but he wouldn’t last 10 minutes in my neighborhood.” What about THIS Jesus?! THIS Jesus will last in that neighborhood. The real question is, will that neighborhood last in the presence of this Jesus? Who can stand before THIS Jesus.

2) Be the “Lampstand” He intends both passively by not loosing your witness, and actively by making Him known. (11:1-12; 12:17; 19:10; 22:9).

The nations of the earth in revelation are the object of mission and judgment. They are both to be offered the gospel of Jesus Christ in love but warned that evil and justice and sin will eventually be accounted for. IT is therefore our task to take part of the former and leave to God the later. Grant Osborne, Revelation

7

For further discussion

Getting to know one another: Describe the most spectacular sight you have ever seen.

Revelation 1:9-20 1. From where does John write and for what reason was he there? 2. Does anyone know about the Roman attitude towards the church around 90AD? 3. Read the first part of v. 9 carefully. What does John mean, “Companion in the suffering and

kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus?” 4. What is it about the message of Christ that is so offensive to the world around us? Is that same

animosity present today? In what ways do you see it? 5. Are there ways that you face the animosity of others because of your testimony for Jesus? 6. John does the best job he can to describe Jesus in glory. Each element of what John describes tells

us something else about Jesus in glory. Talk through each attribute, what it tells us, and how this is helpful to a people in persecution.

7. A number of these identifying characteristics of Jesus are restatements of Old Testament descriptions of Yahweh. What do these tell us about Jesus? How about Is 44:6?

8. What do we see of the heart and purpose of Jesus in his response to John? How can this help us? 9. What do v. 19-20 tell us about how this Jesus can help the church? 10. When John turned to “see the voice that spoke to him,” what did he see first? How is this helpful

to us living in this world? 11. What does it tell us that the church in this passage is described as a “lampstand?” 12. How does this passage change how Christians are able to live in this world? 13. Is there anything else helpful for you about this passage?