How big is your Jesus?

First of all, just want to say thanks to everyone for your warm welcome to Nashville. My sons Ethan and Carsten and have been so blessed, by the encouragement, support, and welcome that you’ve shown. I’m learning that there are certain things in Nashville that are kind of a big deal. Princes or Hattie B’s. Ladybird or Tacqeria Del Sol, Probably the thing that ya’ll are most fanatic about has got to be football. Im learning its not even the NFL- it’s college ball. From Orange, to Red, to Blue, I’m learning that football is serious business. I’ve heard that some churches shut down because of it. When something is a big deal life as we know it stops. We throw parties, we gather together, and we celebrate the victories. I worry sometimes that one of the greatest dangers facing the church is that the incredible beauty and power of the presence of Jesus in our midst becomes a little too ordinary. After a while, the universe shaking power of the presence of God is reduced to a weekly gathering, where we see a few people, shake a few hands, and then go back to "real life.” I wonder today, “How big is our Jesus?” if you have your Bible, please join me in reading Revelation 1:12-20.

Today, we’re launching into a new series that we’re calling “7 letters to 7 churches.” While people often connect the book of Revelation to mysterious images like a seven headed dragon or seven seals, the point of the book of revelation is pretty straight forward.The book begins with a revelation of Jesus to seven churches and I believe draws us to a central reality. Jesus is being revealed as the king over the church, world, and every opponent.” As we get started, I think its important to understand to understand the context of the letter. John is one of the last living disciples, he’s watched as friends have either abandoned the faith or have lost their lives clinging to it. He finds himself in exile on an Island called Patmos. It would be so easy to believe that the best of John's days were behind him. Imprisoned and tortured he too must have wondered what His fate would be. To make matters worse, churches were being infiltrated by false teachers that would seem to shipwreck their faith. Where is Jesus in all this chaos? Sound familiar? What John will do, is call us to wrestle with this question of who is Jesus?

Revelation as Apocalyptic literature.

Apocolypisis - Revealing or uncovering.

Point of the book is not these cosmic signs, but how these signs point to

Jesus as the reigning King.

Jesus is the King of His Church

Verse 9 tells us that while John is in exile he has a vision. He hears a voice calling him to write to the churches. What follows is a description of what he sees. We’re told in verse 12 that he sees seven golden lamp stands and one that was set in the midst of them like a son of man. Later in verse 20, we’re given the insight that these seven lamp stands represent the seven churches. We might ask, what do these churches have to do with us? These churches represent the very real struggles that every church will face whether it be opposition from the outside or within.

This image of a lamp stand refers back to the lamp stands that stood in the places where where Israel would worship before Jesus. In both the temple and the tabernacle, there were lamp stands that were symbols of the presence of God in those places. Strict guidelines were given that the lamp stand was never to go out because God’s presence was continually with the people. Zechariah 4 connects the lamp stand to the place where the voice and will of God gets carried out in the world.

Jesus’ use of the lamp stand to describe the church is powerful. It says so much of the purpose and call of the church. It really is a humbling reality when we recognize that as the church we have been raised up to reflect the glory and beauty of Christ in the world. God has set his Spirit in the midst of us to make His love and power known. Again, its one of those things that we know, but do we really believe it? Make no mistake, there is a very real enemy that would love to hinder and cover the lamp stands from reflecting His love.

While many of us don’t know the persecution from without we’ve seen countless stories of churches that have imploded from within. I’ve heard horror stories of abuse that has taken place as the church drifted from her call. It tends to come down to two primary tactics that Satan uses. The first is that he’ll attempt to get us to blend Christianity with something else. Christianity and a political party. Christianity and self help. Christianity and image. As CS Lewis warns in the Screwtape Letters. As soon as Christianity becomes an and, it ceases to be Christianity. What marks the distinctiveness of the local church is a radical commitment to follow Jesus and him alone.

The second is that he’ll lead us into a kind of practical atheism. Where we know the realities of the presence of God, but we as if it has no bearing on our lives. A real question, “When was the last time that the presence of Jesus interrupted our day?” My fear is that Christ can become so familiar that we furnish a brand on Christianity that has no Christ in it. Its simply going through the religious motions once a week and it anything but the radical call to follow him. At some level, we have to ask, who is the king of the church? The answer to that question changes everything.

If Jesus is the King of His church, the measure of any church is not the quality of her programs, the size of her budget, or the quality of the preacher. It’s the degree to which she makes Jesus famous and raises up people who do the same. Repeatedly throughout the letter, we find warnings that if we drift from that message, the church’s purpose for existing is lost. What do we do about the persecutions that we

2) Jesus is the King over everything

What then of the difficulties that face the church from the outside? You turn on the news and you hear the stories of the pandemic, threats of war, global instability, and you wonder how in the world is the church going to survive this? What if our hope is not in our own craftiness or strategy but in the power of the one who is the King?

In verses 13-16, John now begins a description of the messenger He sees. This one is none other than Jesus himself. These descriptions that John gives may seem random to us the West, but to a Jewish audience they would have been

especially poignant. All of them are coming together to show us just how big Jesus really is.

First, Jesus is bigger than our weakness. In verse 13, we are told that He is one wearing a white robe with a long golden sash. It’s interesting because this term only appears here in the NT. However in the Greek Translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, it appears many times to describe the garments that the high

priest would wear when he went into the presence of God.

Before Jesus, the priest was a mediator who would go before God, hear his word, deliver it to the people and intercede for the nation of Israel. Each year, a lamb would be sacrificed as a symbol of the punishment for sin that the people deserved. Now through his sacrifice, he has once for all paid the price for our sin. I love the way the the author of the letter of Hebrews puts it when He writes in Hebrews 4:14-16. "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Satan will often discourage us by telling us that we can never be used by God because of our past. These verses are a reminder that our hope lie not in our ability to be good enough, but in the faithfulness of the one who is enough. As we wrestle with our brokenness and we’ve brought those things before him, “How big is your Jesus? His description doesn’t stop there.

Secondly, Jesus is bigger than the future’s uncertainty. In verse 14, were told that he had hair of white- white like snow. Throughout the ancient world, this would have been a symbol of Jesus’ power as the one who existed before all things. The one who the author of Hebrews describes in Chapter 2 as the one for whom, and to whom, and through whom are all things forever.

Again we might think, why is this important? The answer is that its making the claim that Jesus is the oldest, wisest, and all knowing being that has ever existed. Its a statement that He knows everything. Even when we don’t. John is reminding us that in a world that is spinning out of control, God is up to something even when we don’t understand it.

Why then does he allow it? Great question and more than I can address here. As I’ve been confronted with that question, I’ve found this quote to be so helpful. "God

is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.” It’s here that John will make a even greater claim.

Finally, Jesus bigger than any opponent. Verses 14b to 16 contain images that remind us of the power of Jesus. His gaze is so pure that like a flaming fire it purges deception. His voice is so great that just a water carves its way through solid stone, his will is accomplished even against the most unyielding circumstance. Out of His mouth comes a two edged sword. It’s an image that what He says goes. His face radiates the glory of God. It is the picture of His ultimate sovereignty and power as God. That recognition of who he is, is one of the church’s greatest weapons against the drift of compromise and practical atheism.

I know it because I’ve seen it. I’ve shared with you a bit of our families story. In 2019, my wife Tami went into the emergency room with what we thought was a ruptured gall bladder. They took a CT scan of her abdomen and the doctor returned to our room. I’ll never forget the look on his face. He said, "I don’t know how to tell you this, but you have stage four cancer.” Instantly, my heart went to “why?!" You’ve got to be kidding me God. We’ve served you, we’ve tried to honor you and this?! I’ll never forget looking over to Tami and she told me, God is telling me, “God is bigger.” For seven months, I watched as she bravely fought but the chemo never touched her disease. At the end of that time, she slipped into the arms of Jesus. I’ll be honest, I don’t understand why? But can I tell you that even against that dark reality I’m learning the reality of “who." If Jesus is the resurrected King, then he’s bigger than me. He’s bigger than any circumstance that will come my way. I need that reminder daily. Its why I’ve tattooed it on my arm. When we recognize that reality it changes so much.

3) Jesus is the King of Love.

Verse 17 tells us, As John sees the unbridled power and glory of God, we’re told that he falls down like one who is dead. Like Isaiah, he finds himself in the presence of God and he says, I’m undone. I love the Hebrew here. It carries with it, this unraveling that comes like pulling the thread on a sweater. Did you notice Jesus’ response? Don’t be afraid. In fact, he lays his right hand on John, a simple of the commission that is being given to him and calls him to write this book.

usIn verses 18-19, Jesus reminds John and us who he is. The living one, the resurrected one, and the conquering one. Friends, one the things that Satan trembles at is when the church recognizes the same presence that awed John is alive and present among His people today. We know that. Do we believe that? The point that Jesus is making is that we don’t have to be afraid of any circumstance because God is present among his people and not even death and hell can stop it.

Can you imagine what would happen if we didn’t live in fear as we take him to the city? Who cares about the entrenchment of centuries of racial divide, the kingdom is coming and its a kingdom of reconciliation! Who cares if I feel weak and inadequate to bear the light of Christ, it wasn’t about me in the first place! Who cares if the world falls apart around me, I am anchored to the rock who has called me His beloved! He is sufficient, he is faithful, and He is worthy of my all. Oh that we might live like Paul confident and convinced that nothing will separate us from the love of God.

Perhaps we do well to daily ask the question, “How big is my Jesus?”

Students as you wrestle with what school you’ll get into, “How big is your Jesus?” Is he big enough to care for you? When we feel called to reach our neighbor? “How big is our Jesus?” Is he the one who will give us all that we need? Is our Jesus so big that he shatters the comfortable boxes of religion and self dependency because he wants all of us? Are we willing to risk on borders of faith because we know that Christ is bigger?

Friends, as I start my time with you. My prayer as a pastor is that everyday in ways that I serve and teach that Jesus would write on you an ever growing picture of Jesus extravagant love and infinite power at work in you. Decades from now if we would tell the stories of lives that have been radically transformed by Jesus and take that love to others, what a life it would be!

Together, may Jesus grant us an ever increasing image of His bigness. May he show us day by day his immense goodness. And may he use us as a lamp stand to radiate His love and mercy in the world.