Who Cares About Church? Series

REVELATION 1:13

Jesus is intimately involved in Brushfork Baptist Church as our mediator. Look how Jesus identifies Himself here. He identifies Himself as the Son of man. While Jesus walked the earth, this was the title He used most often of Himself. He also used the title, Son of God. Now, how can Jesus be both the Son of God and the Son of man? Because He is both God and man. He is fully God and fully man. In Isaiah’s prophesy about the virgin birth of Jesus, he called Him Immanuel. Matthew quotes this prophesy when he wrote about the birth of Christ. And he went on to explain what Immanuel means. It means God with us. Jesus is God in the flesh—God incarnate. Fully God—fully man. As He appears to John in this glorious vision, He appears as God. But He refers to Himself as the Son of Man. It brings to mind the picture of Jesus as the Son of man prophesied in Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” This is the Jesus that John saw. This is the Jesus that walks in the midst of His local churches. This is the Jesus that walks in the midst of Brushfork Baptist Church this morning. As God, Jesus is holy and pure and sinless. As man, Jesus was willing to take on our sins and die for us. We have a hard time understanding the picture John sees in verse 13. But he had no problem understanding it. When John saw Jesus in a robe down to His feet… when he saw a golden sash wrapped around Jesus… he knew exactly what it meant. Jesus was wearing the clothes of the high-priest that are described in Exodus 28. When John saw Jesus, he saw the great High-Priest of the churches walking in their midst. And as their great high-priest, Jesus was their mediator. Hebrews 2:17 says, speaking of Jesus as our mediator: “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. He is the only one worthy to reconcile us to God. He is the only One who has made the final atoning sacrifice for our sins. And why did He do it? Why does Jesus take on the role of being the Son of man? Why is Jesus our mediator and High-Priest? Ephesians 5:26-27 tells us. In order, as Ephesians 5:26-27 says, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Folks, that’s not just talking about our personal salvation. That’s talking about us as a local church. Jesus died to do something for us as His bride that we could never do for ourselves. He died to bridge the gap between God’s holiness and purity and our sinfulness. And He did it to present us as a church to Himself as His beautiful, pure, spotless bride. Do you know what that means? It means He loves us like a groom loves his bride. He intimately walks with us and cares for us and woos us and courts us like a groom does his bride. Jesus is intimately involved in our church as our mediator. He is also intimately involved as our purity. Look with me at verse 14: