Jesus …
What do you picture when I say that blessed and beautiful name? Do you picture the classic portraits and descriptions of “Jesus, Meek and Mild”? Maybe you picture a deified Mr. Rogers with a beard? Do you picture a carpenter from Nazareth? A rabbi wandering around the Galilean countryside preaching the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand? Do you picture a champion of the poor, the lost, the forgotten, the marginalized? Healer of the blind and the sick and the lame? The Lamb of God who was sacrificed on the cross for our sins?
Yes … yes … and yes! He was, indeed, all of these things … well, except for the Mr. Rogers with a beard part. Mr. Roger’s widow recently did an interview where she revealed that Mr. Rogers wasn’t always a saint … can you imagine? Seriously though … what do you picture when I say the name of Jesus? Ever wonder what He really looked like? Was He tall … handsome? Did He have long hair like we see in all the paintings?
Well … we don’t know exactly what He looked like but if we go by his actual name … Yeshua … we can probably create a more accurate picture than the stylized image that we’ve seen over the centuries. To begin with, He probably didn’t have long hair as that wasn’t the fashion at the time. He would have had a beard because you weren’t considered a man in first century Jewish culture if you didn’t have one. We can be pretty sure that He wasn’t very tall. Analysis of skeletal remains from that time and that region indicate that most Jews were pretty short … the average height being around 5 feet, 1 inch tall … and the average weight as around 110 pounds.
No matter how He looked … short, tall, brown hair, black hair, beard, no beard … I truly believe in my heart of hearts that there was something about Him … something different … extraordinary … about Him. I believe that when He looked at you, you could feel Him peering into your very heart and soul … and when He spoke, there was something in His voice … something in His words … that captivated you and enthralled you or terrified you with the truth that pierced your heart and soul.
When I asked you to picture “Yeshua” … “Jesus” … what He actually looked like, you were trying to picture “Emmanuel” … God Incarnate … who “poured Himself out … taking the form of a slave … being in human likeness … and being found in human form” (Philippines 2:7-8). This is the form … this is how He appeared … how He lived … for 33 years … but those 33 years were but a split second … a mere blink of an eye … for Jesus … who was, and is, and will always be! According to the Apostle John, you know nothing about Jesus unless you understand that Yeshua was there in the beginning … that Yeshua was with God when God created the universe out of nothing … and in fact, this carpenter … this rabbi … from Nazareth was actually the Eternal, Self-Existent, All-Powerful, and All-Knowing God of the Universe … and sometimes I think we forget that when we think of Yeshua, Meek and Mild, amen?
The Apostle John, however, had the rare opportunity to get to see Jesus … Yeshua … as He truly was on two occasions … once, briefly, on the side of a mountain and once more towards the end of his life on the island of Patmos.
Patmos is a small, barren, rocky island in the Aegean Sea off the coast of modern-day turkey. It is roughly 10 miles long and about six miles wide. It was one of the main island penitentiaries of the Roman empire … an ancient Alcatraz. The Roman historian Tacitus described the sea and the shores around Patmos as “thickly strewn with [the bodies of] exiles … the crags stained with the blood of victims.” Scottish historian David Ramsey described exile to penitentiary islands like Patmos as pretty much a death sentence. The prisoners worked under the constant lash of military overseers … and were constantly kept in chains. They were scantily clothed … they received insufficient food … slept on the bare ground or in a dark prison.
John had been banished to Patmos to silence his preaching of the Gospel … where he was isolated from all his loved ones … from any kind of caring human contact … a pretty severe and harsh sentence for an old man in his eighties, don’t you think? No one is certain when or where the Apostle John died. Some historians and scholars claim that John died while on Patmos and others say that he was freed from the island just before his death.
And yet it was here … in this dark and foreboding place … that John received the most extensive revelation of future events ever experienced by a human being. He was shut off from the world but he was not shut off from God! The place of his banishment became the place where he was closest to God. During his darkest hour, he encountered the Light … with a capital “L” … of the world. When he had nothing to give, he was given a precious and priceless gift from God to share with the world.
The Jesus that he encountered and the Jesus that we’re about to meet is nothing like the humble, lowly carpenter rabbi from Nazareth … the “Lamb of God” who came to take away the sins of the world. The Jesus that we’re about to encounter is the Lion of Judah! The Eternal, Almighty, Self-Existent God of the Universe who has eyes that burn and pierce into your very soul … the judge before whom all of us … everyone … will one day have to stand.
Do you want to know what THIS Jesus looked like? Would you like to know what Yeshua looked like before He poured Himself out? Want to know what Jesus looks like now? Are you sure? Are you really, really sure? Well, all right then … let’s go! Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 1:9-18. [Read Revelation 1:8-19.]
In verse 10, John says that he was in spirit the on the Lord’s day when he heard a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet behind him. In the Greek, what John actually said was that he “became in the spirit” … which means that he was transported to a place beyond the normal limits or constraints of time and physical space to the realm of the supernatural where the laws of time and space no longer apply. For example, he had the power or the ability to move in two directions at the same time … upward into Heaven and, at the same time, forward into the future to the “Day of the Lord” … which is the Day of Judgment. “In the spirit” John was transported and elevated so that he could see and visit places in the spiritual realm … like the Throne of God … the bottomless pit in Chapter 9 … the Dragon in Chapter 12 … the great city of God descending from the heavenly realm to earth in Chapter 21. All of these events happened in the spiritual realm … in the realm of Heaven. All of these events have yet to happen … and yet may be happening right now as we speak.
John hears a voice like a trumpet calling him to attention. “Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me,” says John, “and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands … and in the midst of the lampstands I saw One like the Son of Man” (Revelation 1:12-13). The lampstands, we are told, represent the seven churches in Asia Minor: Ephesus … Smyrna … Pergamum … Thyatira … Sardis … Philadelphia … and Laodicea.
What exactly do lampstands do? They give off light, duh! Right? The purpose of the seven churches is to shine their light on the One at the center who is like the Son of Man!
So, let’s picture this with our minds, shall we? Seven lampstands … seven candelabras … in a circle … shining their light on the Logos … the Word … the glorified body of Yeshua … the Son of Man … the Son of God! These seven lampstands shine their light on the Light … with a capital “L” … that came into our darkness and the light that these seven churches shine on Jesus is not their light but the light of Jesus shining back on Him who is the source of the light in our churches.
I hope I didn’t lose you yet. Stay with me on this. The responsibility of the church … our church … all churches … is to shine our light on Jesus … to reveal Jesus to the world through our witness … through our testimony. The purpose of the light is to reveal God’s perfection … to bring glory to the Father who is in Heaven … but the light that we are called to shine is the Light … with a capital “L.” The Light that we are called to shine is not our light … it is not the churches’ light. Our light is the Light … with a capital “L” … who walks and exists in the midst of His people which make up His churches.
I still want you to picture Jesus standing in the middle of a ring or circle of lampstands. Mathematically, the center of any circle is equal distance from every point on the circumference of the circle. Are you picturing it? What an amazing image of the relationship that Jesus has with His church. The Light … with a capital “L” … that we shine on Christ is the Light of Christ that is at the very heart and center of our lives and of our churches. We are reflectors of His Light … reflecting His light back on Him to reveal His perfection and His glory and, at the same time, reflecting His Light out into the darkness of this world. Whew! What a powerful image! What a powerful thought, amen?
When Jesus came into our world, He said “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12) … and then He said that as long as He was in the world He would be the light of the world (John 9:5). Even though He is no longer physically in the world, His light continues to shine and He continues to be the Light of the world through us, who, as I said are His reflectors.
Unfortunately, Jesus is no longer at the center of some churches. He has been moved out from the center and given a peripheral role. He has been given a seat at the table but not at the head of the table. Many churches today are known for their great music … some for their great preaching … some for their great facilities. Yet it is not the true measure of success. Ultimately, we are successful to the degree that we reflect Christ. When you no longer see Jesus at the center of the church or at the head of the table, you see a church that is losing its influence and its power. If that continues, guess what? There is no light for that church to reflect, to shine, and that church will eventually go dark, amen?
The thing that keeps the lampstands burning is the fact that they are shining their light on the Source … with a capital “S” … of that light … our center, Jesus Christ. The reason that the pulpit is at the spiritual center of the church is because the Word of God is preached from there … and in the process of speaking the Word of God, the Word reveals God’s glory and shines a light on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The light of the church is not the pastor, my brothers and sisters. Where does the pastor stand? He or she stands BEHIND the pulpit. The Word is what should command center stage, amen? All of us, including the pastor, should stand BEHIND Jesus … who is the Light at the center of our lives and is the center of our worship, amen?
John first describes the lampstands … and then He begins describing Jesus Christ Himself … the One who is like the Son of Man standing in the middle of the lampstands … lit up … glorified by the lampstands … the churches … around Him.
He starts by describing Jesus’ clothing: “… and in the midst of the seven lampstands I saw One like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and a golden sash across His chest” (Revelation 1:13). Long, flowing robes like the one John sees Jesus wearing were a sign of greatness and authority. The greater the king, the longer the robe. If the length of the robe signifies the greatness of the one wearing it, how long of a robe should God be wearing? When Isaiah was “in the spirit” and transported before the Throne Room of God, he described God’s robe as descending from Heaven and filling the Temple … an incredibly long robe for an incredibly great king, amen?
In Jesus’ day, judges either wore a brightly colored girdle or sash over one of their shoulders and across their chest as a sign or insignia of the magisterial office that they held. Jesus’ golden sash makes it clear that He is to be understood as a “judge” … but not just any “judge,” amen? He is THE judge before whom all humanity will stand on the Day of the Lord!
On one occasion, Jesus “girded” Himself and then took a towel and washed His Disciples’ feet (John 11:5). Standing in the circle of lampstands, Jesus is not girded to do servant’s work … no, sir! He is clothed in majesty … He is clothed in a long, flowing robe and “girded” with a golden sash appropriate for One of such great authority. He is clothed like a great king who is wearing the symbol of a powerful judge.
John goes from describing Jesus’ clothing to describing the King who is wearing the clothes. “His head and hair,” wrote John, “were white like wool, as white as snow” (Revelation 1:14). What John saw was very similar to what Daniel saw in his vision of the “Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:9). The double emphasis on the color “white” … “white as wool” … “white as snow” … was done to highlight Jesus’ purity and His great wisdom. In John’s time, white hair was a respected emblem of age. It symbolized the wisdom and experience that comes from having lived a long time … and God and Jesus have lived a long, long, LONG time, amen? From the beginning of time, in fact. The judges in England wear white wigs as a symbol of their authority which comes from their wisdom and experience. Their white “hair” … or wigs … also signify the weight, the solemnity, the dignity, and the seriousness of their office. And who is the ultimate Judge? Jesus! And when does John see Jesus amongst the lampstands? On the Day of the Lord … the Day of Judgment … the Day of Supreme Judgment for all humanity! What do you think of Jesus, “Meek and Mild” now, hum?
But wait … there’s more. John looks at Jesus’ face and sees Jesus’ eyes … burning like tongues of fire! John had seen those eyes before … when Jesus had looked him in the eye and said, “Come, follow me.” He had seen those same eyes filled with tears as Jesus wept over the fate of Jerusalem and His beloved people. He had seen those eyes looking down at him from the cross, filled with an unexplainable mixture of pain and forgiveness. But now! Now they burn with the fire of judgment! Fire is a symbol of the searching, penetrating, revealing gaze of God’s judgment. Fire is what God will use to test and refine us on the Day of the Lord.
Peter knew that deep, penetrating, piercing look. After Peter denied even knowing Jesus … not once but three times … during Jesus’ trial and ordeal at the High Priest’s house, Jesus turned and looked at Peter and I’m sure that Jesus’ look pierced Peter’s heart and soul. The Greek word that Luke used to describe Jesus’ look at that moment was “emblepo” … which described Jesus’ look as intently searching … so searching and intent and revealing that Peter went out and wept bitterly. I’m sure that when Jesus “emblepos” us on the Day of the Lord, His gaze will burn like fire as it searches our hearts and sweeps over every nook and cranny of our souls like a search light. Again, how do you like our Jesus, “Meek and Mild” now?
But wait. There’s the matter of Jesus’ feet … which were “like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace” (Revelation 1:15). What’s that all about, amen? The word that John uses for “bronze” in this passage is only found here and in Revelation 2:18 and nowhere else in the New Testament because the word that John uses is a Hebrew, not Greek word, that means “judgment.” In the Old Testament it stands for a special kind of judgment … “divine” judgment. The altar and the implements used in the Temple were made of brass or bronze. The image of Christ’s feet being made of bronze or brass was a reflection of the Temple, signifying that Jesus was holy from the top of His white head to the soles of His bronze feet. Jesus’ bronze feet not only served as a reminder of the Temple and His holiness but also served as a reminder that one day He will crush evil under His feet and subdue all His enemies. Well … what do you think of Jesus, “Meek and Mild” now?
Of course, we’re not done yet! John says that Jesus’ voice was like “the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:15). I grew up in upstate New York, so our school would take us on a field trip to Niagara Falls every year … or “Horseshoe Falls” as it was called on the Canadian side. About 35 million gallons of water roar over the brink of the two falls every minute. The waterfalls are so loud that you literally can’t hear anything over the roar of the water. It’s not deafening but it’s close. In the same way, Jesus’ voice … the voice that will pronounce judgment … will overwhelm anyone who hears it and the power of His voice will make us bow down in fear and humble submission before Him. So … what do you think of Jesus, “Meek and Mild,” now?
But wait … let me guess, Pastor! … there’s more right? Absolutely. Verse 16 starts out by saying that Jesus held seven stars in His right hand. Think about that for a moment and try to picture it. Jesus is holding seven stars in His right hand. Our “sun” is a medium star … Jesus is holding seven “stars” … seven of our suns … in the palm of His hand … wow! That’s pretty impressive …. beyond impressive, amen? But John makes a point of saying that Jesus is holding them in His right hand and not His left … which is very significant.
Now, the Bible is not prejudiced against “southpaws” but most people in John’s day … like today … were right-handed … and so the assumption was that God was right-handed and, therefore, His strongest arm would be His right arm. Whenever the Bible speaks of God’s “right hand” or “God’s right arm,” it is a reference to God’s power. Jesus is holding seven stars in His powerful right hand.
Since most people, including kings, were right-handed, it was a sign of authority and privilege to sit at the right hand of the king. You get the significance? Sitting at the right hand of God, like sitting at the right hand of an earthly king, signified that the person sitting to the right of the king was an extension of the king’s power … symbolically acting as the king’s right arm. Being the right hand of the king also signified that that person had a great deal of responsibility in that right-handed people perform most tasks with their right hand. When Jesus, “Meek and Mild,” was on this earth, He served as the right hand or the right arm of God, performing in God’s stead or as the incarnational representative of God … and then returned to His former position at the what? At the right hand of the Father, amen?
Jesus’ right hand … symbolizing His power and His authority and command … held seven stars … which represented the seven guardian angles of the seven lampstands or churches. Man … this is exciting stuff, isn’t it? Amen!
Angels are what? The name “angel” comes from the Greek word “evangelion,” which means “messenger.” And the “angels” or the “messengers” of the church are who? The pastors. Now … I’m not going to waste your time trying to convince you that I’m some angel … not in the typical sense that we use that word … but pastors are, in fact, “angels” … messengers who preach the Word of God and turn many … or attempt to turn many … to righteousness. Now … most of the so-called “stars” that we have today … movie stars, athletic stars, musicians, singers … aren’t turning too many people to righteousness these days, are they? Sadly, many are doing just the opposite, amen? But the role of God’s “stars” is to guide … is to lead … God’s people to righteousness so that we can “shine” our light on the One … with a capital “O” … who is like the Son of Man.
Whew! Tell me that isn’t beautiful, amen?!
The light that shines out of the seven lampstands comes from the seven stars in the palm of God’s hand … which not only serves as a symbol or reminder of God’s authority but His sovereignty and His protection as well.
Then there’s the matter of Jesus’ tongue. Jesus’ tongue, says John, is like a “two-edged sword” (Revelation 1:16). What is a sword? A weapon. What does a sword do? It cuts things. Usually the authors in the Bible are describing a short sword or dagger. In this case, however, John is describing Jesus’ tongue as a long, heavy, broad sword … the kind that is used in battle. This type of sword was used as a symbol of righteousness and justice because the people who went to battle and used swords like this believed that they were fighting for righteousness and justice.
Jesus’ tongue is like a sword in that He uses it to execute justice on an unbelieving and sinful world. It symbolizes the authority and the devasting force of the Lord’s judgement. Jesus’ eyes will sweep our hearts and souls on the Day of the Lord. God’s wisdom will discern our every thought and intention and His tongue will pronounce His verdict and He will divide our soul and our spirit with the same ease that a human sword divides joint and marrow (Hebrews 4:12).
Well … what do you think of Jesus, “Meek and Mild,” now? His head crowned with the wisdom of the ages … His burning eyes searching the very depths of our souls … His right hand holding the seven guiding stars of the seven churches … evil crushed and subdued under His bronze feet … His voice rolling like thunder through the heavens … pronouncing our judgement? But wait! We’re not done!
Jesus’ eyes are like flames of fire … His tongue is like a double-edged sword … and His whole face is like the sun “shining with full force” (Revelation 1:16). Not just shining like the sun but with the full force of the sun. I want you to think about that for minute. The sun is pretty bright, amen? I mean, you could literally go blind if you stare at it too long … but did you know that as powerful as the sun appears to us that is not the full force of the sun. If the full force of the sun was not filtered by our atmosphere we would burn up in a second. Only about a half of a billionth of the sun’s energy and light actually reaches our planet … most of the sun’s intensity is diminished by the distance that it has to travel to get and here and what does reach us is filtered by our atmosphere when it gets here … thank God, amen?
Jesus’ face, says John, is as bright as the sun at full power. God made the sun for our benefit. Without the sun … s-u-n … we would die. He made the sun … s-u-n … to rule over the day. God sent His Son … Capital “S”-o-n … to our world for our benefit. God’s Son … Capital “S”-o-n … rules over our hearts. Without the Son … Capital “S”-o-n … we would die an eternal death.
Remember … John had seen Jesus’ true form once before on the side of a mountain. There he saw Jesus’ face shine “like the sun and His clothes [became] as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2). The brightness of Jesus’ face, the fact that it shone like the sun at full force not only represented His power and authority but His purity as well. The reason that that the sun … s-u-n … isn’t a million times brighter than it is right now is because it is not pure … it is diluted by distance and filtered by clouds and by our atmosphere. Jesus’ light is pure because it is not diluted. It is not dimmed or obscured by pollution or sin, understand? There is nothing to cloud or distort it. The brightness of Jesus’ robe, the brightness of His hair, the brightness of His eyes, the brightness of His face all speak to His purity … His “holiness.” And it is the light of His holiness that shines pure and bright in the midst of His churches!
What do you think of our Jesus, our Lord and Savior, now, hum!? Standing in the middle of His church … His glory being reflected back to Him … His authority and power flowing from him like a long robe … His judgment buckled over His heart like a golden sash … His hair shining white like the snow, reflecting the light of His wisdom … His eyes, searching, penetrating, flashing and dancing with fire … His bright, shiny bronze feet ready to trample evil and wickedness underfoot … His voice reverberating like thunder, booming like the waves smashing onto the rocks and shore … His word a great, heavy sword that cuts through the lies to get to the truth … His angels safely nestled in the palm of His mighty right hand … the light of His love shining upon us from His beautiful face.
If you had been on the island of Patmos with John and been in the spirit of the Lord and seen Jesus in all His glory … what would you have done? Would you run up to Him and give Him a big hug? I doubt it … I doubt it very much! We might give our “Mr. Rogers-Jesus-Meek-and-Mild” a big ol’ hug … but this Jesus! Standing in the center of His church in all His glory … well … I imagine that we would probably do what John did and faint dead away, amen?
Even though John knew Jesus personally … had lain His head on Jesus’ breast … seeing Jesus like this! Well, it should come as no surprise that he was overwhelmed by the majesty of the glorified Son of Man and react the way that he did … and I have absolutely no doubt that we would react in exactly way as John, as Abraham, as Moses, as Joshua, Gideon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel did when they encountered the glory and majesty of God.
And yet, with all His power, with all His majesty, with all His authority, we still see the love and the tenderness and the compassion of Jesus. Jesus places His right hand on John and reassures him: “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this” (Revelation 1:17-19).
Revelation is a book of mysterious signs and wonders but the prophesy contained within it speaks about more than what is to come in the end days. At the beginning of John’s vision, Jesus tells him to write seven letters to the seven churches in Asia minor: Ephesus … Smyrna … Pergamum … Thyatira … Sardis … Philadelphia … and Laodicea. These letters aren’t long … in fact, they are actually quite brief and straight to the point. After Jesus dictates these seven letters, John has them delivered to the seven churches. Can you imagine getting such a letter at our church?
Well, guess what? That is exactly what we’ll be doing. For the rest of this series we will open and read the seven letters that Jesus wrote to these seven churches to hear what they have to say to us. I thought they might be a useful and effective way for us to begin our new year together. As we read and study these letters, I would encourage us to use them as a way of taking stock of where we are in our journey together as a church. We can also use these letters as a way of gauging where we are in our individual walks as well. Trust me … the process can be quite uncomfortable but it can also be very encouraging and inspiring as well. Hiding from the truth will accomplish nothing. We are either reflecting the Light of God back at Him or we’re not … and if we’re not we need to know what we can do to put God back in the center of our church and our lives, amen?
Let us pray …
Lord:
Allow us to enter into that sacred fellowship with You. Give us a glimpse, however fleeting, of Your glory. We are willing to face the truth of where we are in our relationship with You and we are willing to let You do what needs to be done to get us facing in the right direction. We want and desire nothing more than to be reflections and reflectors of Your holy Light but we can only do that if You are standing in the very center of our church, our lives, our hearts.
We ask this in the name of the most Holy, most High, most Powerful Son of Man, Jesus Christ. And would all whose hearts desire to be a true reflection of God’s glory join with me in making it so by saying … … amen.
