Portrait Of Jesus

PORTRAIT OF JESUS

Rev. 1:12-18

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. I heard about a city dwelling man & wife who decided to take a trip out into the country. They put up at night into a hotel room.

2. Early the next morning, the husband threw open the windows and took a deep breath. As his eyes focused on the sky, his face twisted up and he ejected all the air from his lungs & slammed the window shut.

3. His wife asked what was wrong with the sky. He replied, “I don’t trust anything I can’t see!”

4. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT SEEN.” Faith is the basis of the Christian life. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. But there is an inner knowing, by God’s Spirit.

B. WHAT DID JESUS LOOK LIKE?

1. Tonight we’re talking about someone we love, because He first loved us. He loved us when we were enemies and vile sinners, wicked in our hearts – and truth be known, we still are, except for His covering grace and empowering Spirit.

2. I want to take out my paint brush and try to sketch a poor portrait of the One I love. When someone has saved you from death & Hell, you don’t forget it; it forever impresses you with His selfless sacrifice and immense humility. Who is more deserving of praise than Jesus?

3. I have read several supposed descriptions of Jesus, none of them really credible. The shroud of Turin actually paints the best likeness of what He looked like. But a physical description doesn’t matter, for His physical body died and was transformed by resurrection.

4. Paul, who actually saw the resurrected Jesus, says in 2 Cor. 5:16, “Therefore from now on we recognize no one by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”

[TEXT: JOHN’S REVELATION VISION] Rev. 1:12-18

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw 7 golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

5. But the Bible has many prophetic descriptions of Jesus. One of my favorites is verse 3 of the hymn, “Jesus Use Me,” by Jack & Billy Campbell.

6. It says, “He’s the Lily of the Valley, the bright and Morning Star, He’s the fairest of ten-thousand to my soul; He’s the beautiful Rose of Sharon, He’s all the world to me, and best of all He is my coming King!”

C. THESIS

1. Paul says in Rom. 3:19 that at the Judgment, “that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be held accountable to God.” What could perform such a feat?

2. Because the One on the throne bears on His body the stains of humanity – the tears, sweat, and marks that demonstrate that He is worthy to judge “because He is the Son of Man” (Jn. 5:27).

3. “To you which believe, He is Precious,” 1 Pet. 2:7. There is so much beauty wrapped up in the Person of Jesus that every part of the Lord brings forth memories. We’re going to remember the special things about our Jesus.

I. WHAT DO WE SEE IN JESUS?

A. HIS FEET

1. Luke 7:38, tells about a woman who was a sinner, at Simon the Pharisees’ house, who “began to wash His feet with her tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment.”

2. Those feet walked many dusty miles through Judea and Galilee. They must have developed calluses and were well worn.

3. Isaiah said of them, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,

who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (52:7).