The Glorified Jesus

Mission and Vision

Why this series?

We have come to the end of our soaking the sanctuary in Scripture

As I began to pray about what direction we should go… I had a lot of ideas and I ultimately came to a point where I didn’t know what to preach

Reading The Revelation of John, I thought maybe I could do a sermon series on that.... the more i read the first 3 chapters… the more God showed me that this is where we need to be

How many of you have ever been through a sermon series on Revelation?

Usually those focus on the truly super confusing stuff at the end about the dragon imagery and the beasts and Armageddon and all that stuff

This is a book or a section that is definitely a crowd pleaser

If you want to get people into a church… do a sermon series about the end of the world or sex and people show up...

A crazy thing is that there is so much goodness here in the beginning before you get to all that stuff that most people think is scary.

If you weren’t here on Wednesday, we talked about the book of revelation and I’m going to borrow some stuff from the teacher in one of our videos

He said that we generally ignore or abuse the book of revelation.

That is we don’t use it at all, or we use it as a mechanism to decipher the end of the world

What would it change if you came to the book of Revelation… not with fear or with a smug sense of superiority over those who you believe are going to parish… but what if we came to it with humility and looked at it as simply the Word of God?

The revelation of JEsus Christ to John… that is truly what it is

So for the next few weeks of summer we are going to dive into the first 3 chapters and see what revelation the Lord has for us in his Word

READ

PRAY

So right here in the beginning we see who is writing and where he got his word and who he is writing to

The author is John, we believe the disciple who Jesus loved

He is on the island of Patmos… being exiled and one day he receives a vision from Jesus himself

This vision or revelation is for the CHurch. John wrote it undrstanding that it would be a circular letter to the body of believers

The revelation starts out with a message to each church

Jesus gives them a specific message that applied to them in the first - second century and to us today

Throughout this sermon series we are going to dive into chapters 2-3 and see what Jesus is saying to the Nazarene Church in Plainville as well as to each of us individually

Before we get to the messages to the churches, we have this moment where John describes the resurrected and glorified Jesus

What we’re seeing here is not the same Jesus who John last saw. The man who was resurrected but not yet glorified. Jesus who still looked for the most part the same except the holes in his hands and side.

Jesus is no longer the meek and mild son of a carpenter....

You guys know that right?

I think we have the view of Jesus in his earthly ministry and how humble and meek he was

He was humiliated to take the form of a servant among his creation. He suffered a brutal and humiliating death. He lived in obscurity, he owned nothing… had no place to stay… and he taught and loved

We still see Jesus as this humiliated savior

So often… probably because we don’t read Revelation that often… we forget that Jesus has been glorified

And that glimpse that peter and James, and John saw on the mount of Transfiguration when Jesus began to glow and Moses and Elijah walked out to talk with him.... that is his full time current status

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the father in Glory

someone say Glory!

Jesus is the king of kings and the one who has been glorified just as he was before he came to earth… He is in majesty!!!!

So let’s look at Johns description of Jesus and see what he’s trying to tell us

Side bar…

this is a revelation or apocalypse

That means it is a style of writing that is heavy in symbolism. The revelation speaks to hidden or veiled things and seeks to give light and knowledge

So what that means is for those of you who are strict literalists are going to have issue with understanding the symbolism here in the image of Jesus and throughout this book

Also.... know that John was writing down through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the things that he saw and heard to the best of his ability

So what we read is to communicate the experience and the sights and the sounds of Johns Vision

So the first thing that John notes about Jesus is that he is walking among the seven lampstands

Jesus is being present among the churches

He is in the midst of the life of the church

John notes that he is one like the son of man

throwing it back to Daniel where Daniel in his vision is trying his best to communicate this Glorious Messiah… and the best he could come up with was that he Looks like the son of a man. He looks human.

yet unlike when Jesus was on earth as the suffering servant

John sees him in a long robe

This is also imagery from the OT for what the Chief Priest would wear

We know that Jesus is our high priest, we see that in Hebrews and in Paul’s letters, but here John is saying that Jesus is alive and dressed in the status of his office of heavenly priest on our behalf

His robe has a golden sash round his chest

This imagery shows that Jesus is not only a priest but he is royal!

John then goes on to describe his hair as being white like wool

He’s not specifically talking about the texture of Jesus’ hair, but the color

This is an image of purity and wisdom

We see This is taken directly from where the ancient of Days is described as having hair as white as snow and as pure wool

This imagery references Jesus as divine, pure, holy, and wise

The same imagery used to describe God the Father in Daniel is being used to describe Jesus in this part of John’s letter

As a matter of Fact, John uses a lot of the description from Daniel in his description of Jesus

Eyes like Fire

Symbol of eyes that see into all darkness. That are penetrating.

Also eyes that are discerning of truth

When some form of metal is needing to be purified.. how do you do it?

You put it in the fire

John is describing Jesus with eyes that purify, that can burn away the dross, that can see through the nonsense of our lives and see the truth and the real issues

These are captivating eyes that see and know. We will see in later weeks that Jesus expands on this wisdom and knowledge in each of the statements to the churches where he states what he knows about them

His feet were like bronished bronze

Again we see purity. We see stability.

Refined bronze is strong and sturdy. It won’t easily topple or be destroyed

The feet of Jesus have been tested and stand firm. They can’t be destroyed or moved

His voice like rushing waters

Again borrowed from the image of God the Father

The image here is of power and strength and might!

In his right hand he held seven stars

The right hand is the symbol of one’s power and he held in one hand all 7 stars that are the 7 angels of the churches. in essence… his might is so grand that he can easily hold 7 angels in one hand

This shows his power, authority, and also his concern for the churches

We see that he was present among the lamps and then we see him holding in his hand to protect and to guide… the churches

This is an intimate image of Jesus and his relationship to his church. Holding and protecting and guiding

From his mouth came a 2-edged sword

The word of God is alive and active sharper than any double edged sword.

Jesus’ word is able to divide our hearts and intentions, our joint and marrow. The words that come from the mouth of Christ are able to judge and to save.

WE see later that when Jesus rides into the final battle his only weapon is the sword of his mouth

Finally we see the face of the Glorified Jesus

Like the sun at full strength

The Glory of Jesus is so much higher than ours one can scarcely look at his face

He dwells in unapprachable light

His majesty and his Glory and his countanence is so marvelous that to look at him is like looking at the sun

How many of you think of Jesus like this?

This is the Jesus that we serve!

This is the Jesus that intercedes

That sits at the right hand of the Father and vouches for you

It’s his glory and righteousness and power and authority that he has sent us in

We are

It’s easy to dismiss carpenter Jesus

It’s easy to overlook humble and meek Jesus

But once you come to understand that Jesus is now serving as a holy high priest and is in full glory

once we get even a glimpse of how awesome our Jesus is… we should have one reaction… the same one taht Jon had

He said in v 17… I fell at his feet as though dead

How often do we live our life as though this is the Jesus we serve

Is your image of jesus so tame and mild that you rarely turn to him?

I fear a lot of us see Jesus as the loveable best friend who’s there for you wehn you’ve had a bad day… or like the boyfriend Jesus who you could just talk to on the phone

He is the exalted and mighty God

King of Kings

Lord of Lords

He is too marvelous for us to even look on

Yet he loves you

Yet he chose to empty himself of his glory