A. One Sunday morning during the sermon, a preacher said to his congregation: “Whoever wants to go to heaven, stand up!”
1. Everyone stood except one man who was sleeping towards the back of the church.
2. The preacher told those standing that they could sit back down.
3. Then the preacher said: “If anyone wants to go to hell, please stand up!”
4. The man who had slept through the first question, woke up just in time to hear: “Please stand up,” and so he did.
5. As he looked around and realized he was the only one standing in the congregation, he yelled to the preacher: “I don't know what we are voting for, but it appears you and I are the only ones for it.”
6. I can tell you for sure that this preacher and everyone listening today would vote to go to heaven rather than hell.
B. Today’s sermon completes a series of sermons about eternal questions that we started back in May.
1. I am indebted to Max Lucado and his wonderful book When Christ Comes for many of the insights I have shared during this series.
2. In this series we have focused on the assurance of the future return of Jesus.
3. We have been reminded of the wonderful promises of God and that He is trustworthy.
4. We have addressed our fears about death and the afterlife.
5. We have tried to come to grips with how we are saved by grace and how we must be clothed with Christ, dressed in His righteousness, in order to be saved.
6. I have tried to encourage us with the great rewards that await us in heaven, and the fact that Jesus has already won the victory.
7. And because no discussion of the return of Jesus would be complete without addressing the question of hell, in last week’s sermon, we examined what the Bible says about the place of torment and its place in God’s plan.
8. Today I would like to finish the series by talking about “seeing Jesus.”
C. Augustine, the great 4th century theologian, once posed the following offer: Imagine God saying to you, “I’ll make a deal with you if you wish. I’ll give you anything and everything you ask: pleasure, power, honor, wealth, freedom, even peace of mind and a good conscience. Nothing will be a sin; nothing will be forbidden; and nothing will be impossible to you. You will never be bored and you will never die. Only…you will never see my face.”
1. Does the first part of the offer sound appealing to you?
2. Doesn’t that pleasure-loving part of us perk up at the thought of guiltless, endless delight?
3. But then, just as we are about to raise our hand to shake on the deal, the final phrase begins to nag at us, “You will never see my face.”
4. Never? That’s such a strong absolute. Never seems like a long time.
5. Imagine never getting to be in the presence of God? Never, beholding the face of Christ?
6. Now all of a sudden, would the bargain begin to lose some of its appeal?
a. For many it would, but for others it wouldn’t.
7. Either way, this little test teaches us something about our hearts and our hopes.
D. Perhaps some people listening to me might be thinking: “Of course I want to see Jesus, but will seeing Him really be that amazing?”
1. According to the Apostle Paul it will.
2. In 2 Thessalonians 1:10, Paul wrote: On the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.
a. The New Century Version reads: On the day when the Lord Jesus comes, all the people who have believed will be amazed at Jesus.
3. Isn’t that something, Paul says that we will be amazed at Jesus!
a. Scripture doesn’t emphasize that we will be amazed at the angels, or our new bodies, or our heavenly mansions.
b. Paul doesn’t point to the joy of encountering the apostles or embracing our loved ones.
c. If we will be amazed at these, which certainly we will, Paul was not concerned with them.
4. What Paul was concerned about is that we will be amazed at Jesus.
a. We will marvel at Him.
b. What we have only seen in our thoughts, we will see with our own eyes.
c. What we have struggled to imagine, we will be free to behold.
E. What will be so amazing about seeing Jesus?
1. Well, I, of course, have no way of answering that question from personal experience, but I can lead you to someone who can.
2. One Sunday morning many Sundays ago, a man named John saw the glorified Jesus.
3. And what he saw, he recorded, and what he recorded has tantalized believers in Christ for two thousand years.
F. Let’s remember what John’s situation was at the time.
1. John was an old man, likely with stooped shoulders and shuffling walk.
2. The years have long past since he was the young disciple whom Jesus loved.
3. His master had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended.
4. Most of his friends and other apostles were dead.
5. The Roman government had exiled him to the Island of Patmos.
6. Let’s imagine him that morning in question, sitting on a beach on Patmos worshipping.
7. The ocean may have separated him from his home and loved ones, but no amount of water could separate him from Christ.
8. John wrote: On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches…” (1:10-11).
G. John was about to see Jesus, and as you know, this wasn’t his first time to see His Savior.
1. You and I only read about the hands that fed the thousands, but John, he had seen them.
2. He’d seen Jesus’ compassionate, weeping eyes.
3. He’d seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain and he had seen Jesus distressed in the garden.
4. John had truly seen Jesus.
5. For three years he’d walked with Christ.
6. But the encounter John was about to have on the Island of Patmos was far different from any in Galilee or Judea.
7. The image of Jesus that John saw was so vivid and powerful that John was knocked out cold.
8. John said: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (1:17).
H. Listen again to John’s description of what he saw: “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven 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. His head and hair were 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 out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (1:12-16).
1. Now, if you are puzzled by what you just heard, you aren’t alone.
2. The world of Revelation cannot be contained or explained, it can only be pondered.
3. And John certainly records a vision for us to ponder.
4. But there is something very important that we need to notice that Max Lucado brought my attention to in his book, When Christ Returns: Max pointed out that what John wrote was not what he saw.
a. Yes, you heard me correctly – look more carefully at the verses we just read.
b. What John wrote is not what he saw, rather what he wrote is like what he saw.
5. What he saw was so otherworldly that he had no words to describe it.
a. Consequently, he reached into his storage closet of metaphors and returned with an armload of word pictures.
6. Notice how often John used the word like.
a. He described the hair like wool, eyes like fire, feet like bronze, a voice like the rushing of water.
b. So, in a breathless effort to tell us what he saw, John gave us these symbols.
7. But we also need to keep in mind that these symbols were originally intended for and were to be understood by the members of the seven churches in Asia.
a. For us to completely comprehend the passage we must understand the symbols as the original readers understood them.
8. And incidentally, John’s strategy is not all that foreign to us, because we use symbols in everyday life.
a. If you open the newspaper to an editorial page and see a donkey talking to an elephant, you know the meaning.
b. You know this is not a cartoon about the zoo, it’s about politics.
c. Since we know the symbolism behind the images, the picture makes sense to us.
d. And in order to understand John’s vision, we must do the same.
I. So, when we see this image of Christ, what does John want us to see?
1. First, he wants us to see the perfect priest.
a. “He was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest” (vs. 13).
b. The first readers of this message knew the significance of the robe and the sash.
c. Jesus was wearing the clothing of a priest.
d. A priest is one who presents people to God and God to people.
e. You may have known many priests, in a formal or informal sense, but you have never known a priest like Jesus.
f. Hebrews 7:26 says, “Jesus is the kind of high priest we need. He is holy, sinless, pure, not influenced by sinners, and he is raised above the heavens.”
g. Jesus is the perfect priest - He is both pure and is the one who does the purifying.
h. John notes that “his head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like flames of fire” (1:14).
i. When John saw Jesus the perfect priest he was reminded of the virgin wool of sheep, and the untouched snow of winter.
j. He was also reminded of fire - In the eyes of Jesus he saw a purging blaze which will burn the bacteria of sin and purify the soul.
k. So, in the image of Christ, John saw a priest, snow-pure, and white hot.
2. Second, he wants us to see absolute strength.
a. “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace” (1:15).
b. John’s audience knew the value of metal more than we do.
c. Eugene Peterson explains: “Bronze is a combination of iron and copper. Iron is strong but it rusts. Copper won’t rust but it’s pliable. Combine the two in bronze and the best quality of each is preserved, the strength of iron and the endurance of copper. The rule of Christ is set on this base: the foundation of his power is tested by fire.”
d. Every power we have ever known is limited and is subject to decay.
e. But the strength of Jesus will never be surpassed, nor will it subside.
f. When we see Jesus, we will for the first time, see absolute power.
3. Up until this point, John has described what he saw, but now he tells us what he heard.
a. John wants us to hear the sound of love.
b. He shares the sound of Jesus’ voice.
c. It’s not the words that he describes, but the sound, the tone, the intonation.
d. The sound of a voice can be even more important than the words that are spoken.
e. I can say, “I love you,” but do so with a coerced grumble, and you will not feel loved.
f. Have you ever wondered how you would feel if the exalted Christ spoke to you?
g. John says that Jesus’ voice felt like he was near a waterfall.
h. The sound of a river rushing through the forest is not a timid one, but it can be relaxing.
i. When people visit Niagara Falls, they are impressed by the thunderous sound of Niagara.
j. In heaven Jesus’ voice is always heard - a steady, soothing, commanding presence.
4. Next, John tells us that in his hands are the seven stars and he wants us to see the source of protection.
a. “In his right hand he held seven stars” (1:16).
b. Later in verse 20, John explains that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
c. With apologies to the lefties among us, the right hand in Scripture is a picture of readiness and blessedness.
1. The right hand is a picture of action.
d. And what does John see in the right hand of Christ? The angels of the churches.
e. Like a soldier readies his sword in hand, so Jesus secures the angels, ready to send them to protect his people.
f. Aren’t you encouraged by this reassurance? I’m sure the seven churches were!
g. How wonderful it is to know that the pure, fiery, bronze-footed Son of Man has one heavenly priority: the protection of his church.
h. He holds them in the palm of His right hand, and He directs them with the sword of His word.
i. John says that “out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.”
j. The sound of His voice soothes the soul, but the truth of His voice pierces the soul.
k. The Hebrew writer tells us that “God’s word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12-13).
5. Finally, John reveals that Jesus’ “face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (1:16).
a. John wants us to see the everlasting light.
b. Heaven is a place where the shadows are banished by the face of Christ.
c. Jesus is radiant. Brilliant. In Him there is no darkness.
J. So, what are we to do with such a picture? Are we to consider this a portrait of Christ?
1. I don’t think so. I don’t think the goal of this vision was to tell us what Jesus looks like, but rather was given to tell us who Jesus is.
2. Jesus is the perfect priest, the only pure one, He has absolute strength, He speaks with the sound of love, He is the source of protection, and He is the everlasting light.
3. When we see Jesus someday, we will see unblemished purity and unbending strength.
4. Not only that, but we will also feel His loving presence and His unbridled protection.
I. There is one more amazing truth I want us to come to try to come to grips with today and it is this: All that Jesus is, you and I will be.
1. That’s the promise John wrote about in 1 John 3:2-3: Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
2. Someday, when He comes and we see Him, He will transform us. We will be like Him. And we will be with Him forever.
3. Doesn’t that sound good?
a. Doesn’t that sound fantastic?
b. Could anything sound better?
c. Could anything be of more value that seeing God and being like Him?
4. Look at some of John’s final words in Revelation 22:4 and 5: They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
5. God has an amazing future in store for us.
a. Do you want it?
b. Do you want to be there?
6. If so, then you’ve got to get ready.
a. John wrote, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself.”
7. When Peter wrote about the day when Christ comes, he wrote, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Pt 3:10-14).
a. And so that’s what we must do to get ready.
b. We must get into Christ through faith, repentance, confession and baptism.
c. And then we must stay in Christ making every effort to be faithful and pure, living holy and godly lives.
d. Not because our holy and godly lives save us, for we are saved by grace and by the righteousness of Christ.
e. Rather we live lives of faith and godliness to remain in fellowship with God and so that we can be more useful in service to God as we serve and let our lights shine.
Resources:
When Christ Comes, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 1999.
