Vision Of Christ Series

Vision of Christ

Revelation 1:9-16

Rev. Brian Bill

January 17-18, 2026

A man gets on a bus with three young children. Immediately the kids start running up and down the aisle, bumping into passengers, knocking things over, and spilling into people’s space. Everyone on the bus becomes irritated.

Finally, someone blurts out, “Why can’t he keep those bratty kids under control?” The man looks up slowly and quietly responds, “Their mother just died about twenty minutes ago. I honestly don’t know what to do with them.”

The bus falls silent. And then something changes.

The same people who were annoyed moments before begin comforting the children, offering hugs and kindness. Nothing about the children changed. What changed was what everyone now knew to be true.

When we don’t have the full picture, we often misjudge what we see.

Have you ever had a first impression of someone that turned out to be wrong, or at least incomplete? You’re not alone because we size people up almost instantly. According to Psychology Today, first impressions can form in just one-tenth of a second, and some researchers say within seven seconds we’ve already decided whether we like someone.

Many of us grew up with a certain picture of Jesus as gentle, soft-spoken, always smiling kindly, holding a lamb on His shoulders or surrounded by little children.

After all, Jesus did say, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart…” (Matthew 11:28-29). But if that’s our only impression, we’ve missed so much.

That’s exactly what’s happening when John wrote Revelation. Many people in the first-century church thought they knew Jesus. They knew Him as the suffering servant, the crucified teacher, the humble rabbi. All of that was true, but it was not the whole picture.

In the middle of suffering and exile, John had a new vision of Christ, not of a different Jesus, but the same Jesus fully revealed: risen, radiant, reigning, and relational.

That leads to our main idea for today: A right vision of the risen Savior transforms how we view suffering.

Please turn to Revelation 1:9-16: “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’ 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

This passage begins with John identifying with the church’s shared suffering (vv. 9–11) and quickly turns our eyes to the supreme Savior who stands among His churches (vv. 12–16). We move from the path of suffering we’re called to walk to the Savior we’re called to worship.

Our Shared Suffering

1. Partnership in suffering. John quickly identifies himself as a fellow sufferer with fellow saints in the first part of verse 9: “I, John, your brother and partner…” John doesn’t refer to himself as an exalted apostle or even a prominent pastor but focuses instead on his family of faith and the fellowship they have together. The word “brother” means, “from the same womb” and “partner” is the idea of sharing something in common. As Paul taught in Philippians 1, we are fellow partakers of grace, and fellow partners in the gospel. John is saying: “I’m one of you and I’m with you.”

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are partners who participate in “…the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus…” In Greek, there is only one article, meaning that all three are part of our reality. The word “tribulation” is different from the coming “great tribulation” (7:14), and literally means, “to squeeze, press, or crush.” We shouldn’t be surprised by suffering because Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Acts 14:22 makes this promise, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom.”