Who is who was and who is to come Revelation 1:4-8
1. Jesus has went from Rejection, Abandonment, crucifixion, Resurrection to Glorification
• Now Jesus is seated in heavenly splendor
• Now “every eye shall see him” even those who pierced him”;
• Now Jesus is Lord of All,
2. Today’s readings give us an image of the Risen Lord, He is who is, who was, and who is to come.
• First look at who Jesus is: the Alpha and the Omega
• Jesus is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth.
• Jesus is, at this very moment ,is alive. God’s Not dead He’s surely alive living on the inside roaring like a lion .
• Jesus is not a dead person. Jesus is. He exists. He is real, viable, alive, among us, present and aware of all things, communicates, and reactive.
• Jesus is one we pray to . You don’t pray to a dead person. You don’t pray to an image, a stone, a piece of wood. Jesus told his disciples, “I will do whatever you ask in my name … If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).
• When the first martyr of the church was being stoned to death, he prayed to Jesus: “While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:59-60).
3. Let’s look at who Jesus was
• Jesus was born to a young woman living in Nazareth in Galilee, he was given a name: Jesus. So, Jesus was … a baby with a mom and dad.
• Jesus was called Jesus son of Joseph (Luke 4:22; John 1:45, 6:42), Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 10:38), or Jesus the Nazarene (Mark 1:24; Luke 24:19).
• Jesus was … a man with a mission. He was called the Christ, which translates to the Hebrew term meaning Messiah or “anointed one.”
• Jesus was the one who loved us so much that He would free us from our sins.
4. Jesus is, Jesus was, and Jesus is the one who is to come 7Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him,
• Jesus is coming again, but He will not come until there is a great falling away Let no one in any way deceive you by any means, for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3,
• Luke writes , "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
• The one who is to come will be at unexpected hour as it was in the days of Noah eating and drinking
• The one who is to come will bring judgment 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
• The One who is to come will also bring Salvation 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
