The Living One

Revelation 1:17-18 ESV

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Whenever I was asked to preach this morning for our community Easter morning sunrise service, I wanted to make sure to preach from a text that met three criteria.

First, I wanted to make sure to preach from a text that you don’t hear from every Easter. Second, I wanted to make sure to preach from a text that is heavy on doctrine. And last, I wanted to make sure to preach from a text that is possible to be preached from concisely, considering the fact that no one wants to sit through a lengthy sermon at a sunrise service.

So, needless to say, figuring out which text to preach from this morning that meets all of that criteria took a little bit longer than simply turning to one of the traditional biblical passages that we typically preach from on Easter morning. But I think that we have something for you this morning that you will enjoy.

Now, we are reading this morning from the book of Revelation. And the word “revelation” in itself means to have something revealed to you, to have made known to you that which was previously unknown.

Therefore, we know that the purpose of revelation, not just the book of Revelation, but revelation in general, and more specifically, divine revelation is when God Himself reveals to someone something that was previously unknown.

Now, as the book of Revelation begins, and we read the contents of the first chapter, we see that Jesus does something extremely revelatory when He reveals to His apostle, John the fullness of His deity.

Starting in verse 12 of this first chapter of Revelation, John describes seeing seven golden lampstands, which represent truly biblical, truly orthodox churches, and in the midst of those lampstands, in the midst of these biblical, orthodox churches is One clothed with a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest.

His hair was white like wool, like snow. His eyes were like flames of fire, His feet like burnished bronze, His voice like the roar of many waters. 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 was God the Son, Jesus the Christ, God Almighty, standing in the midst of those churches which truly call upon Him and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

And our text for this morning tells us that as John, the apostle whom the Lord Jesus loved, beheld Jesus in all His glory, he fell at His feet as though dead in great dread, great terror, great fear.

And we may hear these words, we may hear that John was the beloved disciple of the Lord, that he was indeed nearest to the Lord throughout His sojourn on earth and then wonder why he would ever fall in terror before His Lord when he beholds Him.

But in all reality, what John depicts here is how sinners always respond to a true vision of the holiness of Christ whether it be in person or in the pages of scripture.

You see, all people fear the Lord. But the kind of fear wherein people fear the Lord is not one and the same with all people. A person always fears the Lord in one of two ways.

Either we fear the Lord because we are not saved and thus know that we are at odds with Him and thus actually fear God because of that and thus wish that He was not.

Or we reverentially fear God. We know who we are, and we know Who He is, and we know that we are not worthy of Him, but still, because God has caused our hearts, caused the hearts of those who are saved, to be inclined towards Him, we love Him, and thus we say, “I know that I don’t deserve You, therefore I deserve not to be in Your presence, therefore do with me what You will, just let me dwell in Your presence a little while longer.”

Thus, as John, filled with such holy terror, falls at the feet of the Lord Jesus, pleading with Him to be merciful towards a wretched sinner as himself was when the Lord Jesus, as this next part of verse 17 tells us, places His right hand, the hand of favor and fellowship upon His apostle, not to strike him, but to reassure him of His grace as He tells him, “Fear not”.

There is a lady who attends my church who always gives an excellent definition of what the grace of God is when she says that grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense.

And you know, she is exactly right about that; the grace of God means that I have done nothing to gain my salvation or to earn God’s approval, but that He has done everything.

The grace of God means that not only have I done nothing to gain my salvation or earn God’s approval, but that I am not capable of doing anything to gain my salvation or earn God’s approval, furthermore it means that left to myself I am not willing to do anything to gain my salvation of earn God’s approval.

In fact, that God must extend His grace means that naturally, left to myself, the only thing that I will willfully do is continue to rebel against God and gleefully rush headlong into Hell without even realizing that Hell is where I am going.

But grace means that in spite of all of that, God set His sights upon me and determined to have me and today I stand before you a forgiven man because Christ Jesus stood in for me on my behalf and suffered the penalty of my sins, the penalty that I deserve, and God then willed to apply that most righteous and holy blood which He shed to my account.

Thus, the Lord Jesus, He tells John, His apostle “Fear not. I have not suffered for you and died for you only to condemn you, with Me, there is grace.”

And our reading goes on to explain to us how Jesus can make such a statement when He tells John not to fear because He, Jesus, is the first and the last.

What this means is that the nature of Jesus is eternal. This means that He has no beginning, He has no ending. There was never a time when He was not, but He always has been and is.

And there is only One Who can adequately fit that description. You see, we all were created. Everything in creation, people, beasts, trees, rivers, mountains, the moon, the stars, the sun, all of the celestial and angelic beings, all of it had a beginning, there was a time when everything that there is, was not.

This tells us that there was a time, if you can even call it time, when there was nothing but a Cause. And that Cause is God Himself. There was never a time when God was not, no, God ever is.

And thus, when Jesus says, “I am the first and the last” what He is saying is “I AM God! I have the authority and I have the ability to be gracious to whom I will to be gracious towards.”

And not only does Jesus say that He is the first and the last, but He also says that He is the Living One. He is alive, He is the Living God, He never sleeps nor slumbers, He never takes a day off, He is the Most High, possessing all power, and ever exercising His sovereign will.

This means that the Lord Jesus not only possesses all power as God, but that He also actively governs all things as God.

Thus, Jesus tells John not to fear because not only is He all powerful, but that He also governs, rules, controls all things, and as was said before, if Jesus saved John, then John can know that Jesus will direct all things so that John will indeed maintain his salvation.

Indeed, the Lord tells John “You are My friend, and My friends I keep!”

But though the Lord Jesus ever is, though He is all powerful and self-sustaining, He goes on to tell John that He died.

Now, you may wonder how this can be. If Jesus is truly God and thus ever is, is all powerful, is self-sustaining, and indeed cannot cease to be, then how is it that He died?

Some have tried to answer this question by claiming that when Jesus came to earth, He laid His deity aside, that He ceased being God, at least while He on earth. But there is a serious theological error with that statement, indeed, it’s heretical, for it is a plain fact that God cannot ever cease being Himself. In other words, God can never stop being God.

No, the marvelous reality about the advent of Jesus is that when He came to this world, He was in what theologians call the hypostatic union. Remarkably, this means that Jesus was simultaneously God and Man. And that does not mean that He was half God, half man, or three quarters God and one quarter man, but that He was fully, one hundred percent God and fully, one hundred percent Man, simultaneously, at the same time.

And because Jesus was fully Man, His humanity did indeed die, cease to be on the cross, yet, as He says here, “behold I AM alive forevermore!”.

What a tremendous reality! He was dead, but behold, He is dead no more, He has risen on the third day just as the scriptures had predicted! And now He reigns, and not for a season, or for a generation, or for a century, or for a millennium, but for all eternity!

Indeed, that which grips us with the most fear, Death and Hades, the reality of dying and entering into the realm of the dead, even that bitter reality Jesus defeated and rules over through His own death and subsequent resurrection.

So, we ask, what is so good about Easter? Is it the reality that Spring has set in? Is it the colorful clothing? Is it time shared with family? Is it the plastic eggs with candy inside? Is it the cute Easter bunny?

No, what is good about Easter is the empty tomb where the Lord Jesus once lay. What is so good about Easter is that Jesus, the Lord and Savior of His elect people lives, He powerfully reigns this very day, and one day He will return in glory!

Amen?