For hundreds of dollars extra, you can buy yourself a backstage pass to meet your favorite musician next time she comes to town. There’s a growing market for these “all access” passes. Before the concert, while the rest of the audience is jostling to get in, you’ll be hanging out with the star of the show nibbling on refreshments and talking to her about her musical influences. What will strike you is just how ordinary the celebrity is when seen up close. Her makeup won’t hide the bags under her eyes and she’ll seem much shorter than you imagined her to be. When it’s time to find your seat for the concert, you might get a parting handshake or even a hug, but you shouldn’t take that to mean that you and the star are now friends! No, if you want to see her that close again, you’ll have to buy another backstage pass.
You didn’t have to purchase a ticket to get in here this morning and so you may not be expecting a whole lot. Well, you’re in for a treat. Today we’re going to go backstage with Jesus! Unlike most backstage encounters this view of Jesus is much more glorious than what we are used to. It’s my prayer that by the end of the sermon you’ll indeed marvel at the King of kings, and magnify the Friend of sinners.
Our guide on this backstage tour is John, one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus. John of course was quite familiar with Jesus. He had followed him around for three years before Jesus ascended into heaven. And yet he never quite saw the Savior the way he did many years later when exiled on the Greek island of Patmos. John tells us that one Sunday he heard a voice behind him speaking loudly like a trumpet attacking the opening notes of a fanfare. I’ll let John pick up the true story from here. “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 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. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Revelation 1:12-16).
When fans meet the star of the show before the concert, they usually see a calmer, more normal looking person than what they see on stage or on TV. Heavy metal rockers, for example, won’t wear their theatrical makeup for the meet and greet. With Jesus it’s just the opposite. Throughout his earthly ministry he looked quite ordinary. Roman soldiers were amused in fact when they were told that Jesus was the king of the Jews. Why, he didn’t even have a crown! So why not give him one…made out of thorns! But the Jesus that John now saw was quite different. No longer was he dressed in the strips of rags he had been crucified in. No longer was his hair matted with dry blood. Instead he wore a white robe with a golden sash, and his hair, his head, and his face shone like the sun.
How encouraging this sight must have been to John, for 60 years had passed since he had seen Jesus and by then it didn’t seem like Christianity was going to last another 6 years. All the other original disciples had already been martyred for their faith. John’s brother, James, had been the first to go. He was beheaded by Herod Agrippa just ten years after Jesus’ resurrection. Twenty years after that the spokesman of the disciples, Peter, was crucified upside down by the emperor Nero. Now John himself had been exiled and banished from the congregations he loved, and their leaders were facing persecution and death. Pastor Antipas from Pergamum, for example, had reportedly been burned to death in a red-hot bronze ox. And yet here now was Jesus shining with the brilliance of an equatorial noon-day sun, not glowing feebly like the setting November sun in Edmonton as if Jesus was some “has-been.” He was indeed the “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5b). It was not the Roman emperor who called the shots but the King of kings. It’s still the same today. It’s not dictators and terrorists who call the shots in this world but Jesus.
Well if Jesus was so awesome, why wasn’t he doing something to support his Church? He was. Jesus communicated that truth by appearing to John while standing among seven golden lampstands. At the end of the chapter (Revelation 1:20) Jesus explained that the lampstands represented the seven churches to whom John was to write. The lampstands were made out of gold, not plastic because every Christian congregation, every gathering of believers is precious to Jesus. That’s also why Jesus was walking in their midst and not sitting poolside in heaven as if he didn’t care about those congregations.
Are you glad to know that the glorious Jesus is also walking in our midst? Maybe not. Especially when you note how his eyes were on fire (Revelation 1:14b) probably signifying how Jesus sees what’s going on in each congregation and in each heart. When you’re really relying on yourself to keep it all together instead of depending on him, Jesus knows it. When you dive head first into temptation kidding yourself that it’s okay because sins are forgiven anyway, Jesus knows it. When you get your back up at an invitation to study his Word and then to apply your faith with a well thought out plan of stewardship, Jesus knows that too. Jesus also knew about John’s sins. It’s no wonder John fell at Jesus’ feet like a dead man when he saw the marvelous King of kings.
But Jesus had not appeared to John to frighten him; he wanted to encourage him. So he reached out his right hand, touched John’s shoulder, and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17b, 18). John deserved hell for his sins and one day he would die because of them. But Jesus assured John that he held the key of death. If your parents threaten to punish your misbehavior by locking you in a dark and dirty cellar where rats scurry about, you wouldn’t like the idea. But if you had a key to the cellar, you wouldn’t mind hearing the lock click behind you. No problem. Just get out your key and let yourself out! Although we don’t have the key to get us out of the cellar of death, our friend Jesus does. And he is very much alive and will use that key for our benefit. That’s why John called him the “firstborn from among the dead” (Revelation 1:5a). And don’t think Jesus is going to raise us from the dead only to punish us for our sins. John tells us that Jesus has “freed us from sins our by his blood” (Revelation 1:5b). Like a well-placed squirt of WD40 that springs open a rusted lock, Jesus’ blood dissolves the bond that had shackled us to Satan and his sentence of eternal damnation.
Are you digging this backstage visit with Jesus? He’s so different from other celebrities. They arrange pre-concert meet and greets to make extra cash, not because they want to hear what’s going on in the lives of their fans. Jesus, however, invites us backstage so that we will pour out our heart to him in prayer – not that he needs us to do this so he knows what’s going on. He just wants us to be assured that he is indeed the Friend of sinners.
And now here’s something else that’s cool about this backstage visit with Jesus. Most celebrities will send you home with an autographed CD and a card stating that you’re now an official member of the inner fan club. John reports that Jesus “made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). Jesus didn’t make you a member of his fan club; he made you royalty. Christians aren’t second-class citizens in this world; we reign with Christ, the King of kings!
Not only that, Jesus made each of us a priest. That doesn’t mean you get to deliver the sermon next Sunday. You need to be properly trained and called to do that. But as a priest you have the high privilege of being God’s mouthpiece to this dying world. You, and not the angel Gabriel, get to tell your friends that their sins are forgiven and that no matter what difficulty they are facing, Jesus has it covered.
Does this commission intimidate you? I mean wouldn’t that be like a celebrity sending you out on stage to perform for him after your meet and greet? It is but there’s one more detail from John’s vision that will assure you that you can with confidence step out on to the world stage for your Savior. Did you notice what was coming out of Jesus’ mouth? A rhomphia. No, that’s not Greek for butter knife. A rhomphia is a broad sword that stood almost as tall as a man and was so heavy that it had to be handled with two hands. In other words, when Jesus sends you out as his priest to the world, it’s to speak his powerful Word. The Word will have an effect. It will either cut your listeners to pieces so they repent of sin and lead them to want to learn more about their Savior. Or it will harden their hearts. The results are God’s business. Your business and mine is to energetically swing that Word around like a four-year-old playing with a light saber from Toys R Us. And here’s the thing; while the sword of God’s Word is not a toy, it is easily handled even by Sunday School children who know how to sing: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”
Spending time backstage with a famous musician may be a once in a lifetime treat for many. But you can go backstage with Jesus whenever you want. Just crack open your Bible and take in the wonderful descriptions of Jesus you’ll find there. Do this often so you continue to marvel at Jesus the King of kings and magnify him as the Friend of sinners. For that is what he is. Amen.
