The Glory of the Risen JesusRevelation 1:9-20

Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016Sermon Transcript

Justin Langley

Easter Sunday is a personally important day for me; it’s a time that I get to reflect back on the time that God saved me from death, 19 years ago. I was baptized on Easter Sunday in 1997; the week prior to that—I think the date was March 30, on a Saturday evening—God awakened me to new life, exercised his resurrection power in the deadness of my soul and brought me to life. And so, I love Easter Sunday for all of the same reasons that you love it, and then some besides, and I’m glad to be up here sharing from the Scriptures that God used to awaken me all those years ago.

As people asked me, in the weeks leading up to this morning, what I would be preaching on on Easter Sunday, and I told them I’d be preaching from the book of Revelation, I received interesting responses—mostly raised eyebrows, blank stares, very confused looks. And I’ve reflected on why that might be, and there are probably an abundance of reasons. It’s certainly not typical or traditional for an Easter message to come from the book of Revelation, and I’m aware of that. But I wonder if so often the book of Revelation is centrally discussed in the midst of debates and conflicts about the future and about the end of history so much so that we lose sight of the actual, primary message of the book of Revelation, which is very simple. The book of Revelation is a complex book; I’m not going to stand up here and tell you it’s easy. But its primary message is quite simple, and so I’d like to take a few minutes before we get into the text this morning to share with you why I think it’s so fitting that we would open the book of Revelation this morning on Easter Sunday of all Sundays and why it’s fitting that we would spend time in it in our daily lives as well.

The book of Revelation has one primary message that I think I can summarize pretty simply in one sentence. The book of Revelation is designed by God to show you Jesus. That’s the main point. It’s to give you a picture—it’s visionary literature—of the risen king that we worship this morning, to show you Jesus. But there are two practical applications of that primary point of the book of Revelation that it’s driving for in your life. So, if you read the book of Revelation, you ought to be asking the question at every page, at every chapter, at every verse: how does this show me Jesus as he really is? And then when you answer that question, when you see that coming up out of the text, what do you do? What is the response that the book of Revelation wants you to make at every point throughout the book? And it’s very simple; it’s twofold. The book of Revelation wants to show us Jesus as he really is so that we will repent from sin and endure suffering. That’s what the book of Revelation is about, primarily and fundamentally. It wants to show us Jesus as he really is so that you and I as Christians will repent from sin and endure suffering. And I believe that’s what you and I need more than anything else this morning and every morning.

And so I’m excited to open the book of Revelation with you this morning, and I’ve been praying for you and for me that God would show us Jesus as he really is—not as we might like him to be, not as we might imagine him to be, but as he is truly, right now in heaven. And when we see

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him, when we see him as he really is, that is the power that comes into our lives to turn us away from our sin and to help us to endure suffering in our lives. And so, with that fundamental need on the table—that’s what you need and that’s what I need more than anything else, more than I need food, more than I need water I need to see Jesus as he really is, and that’s what you need also. And if you do see him, if you get a glimpse of him, I’m convinced that that will drive out some of the lesser desires that we are so preoccupied with in our everyday lives, and that will give us the fortitude that we need to endure the suffering of this world in all of its forms.

And so I invite you to open to Revelation chapter 1, and we’re going to open up this opening vision of the book of Revelation. If you know anything about the book of Revelation, you know that it’s composed of a series of visions. The first one given to John is in Revelation chapter 1 verses 9-20, and that’s what we’ll open up this morning. So, I’d like to begin looking at this passage, and we’ll start with verses 9-11, where John introduces himself and he shares with us how he received this message, this book, as a message from the Lord for his “partners.” So, let’s look at Revelation 1 verses 9-11: 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. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 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.”

So, John introduces himself here in a way that we might not expect. I believe that this is John the apostle that we know from the Gospels. In fact, the Gospel of John seems to refer to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”1 We might expect him to introduce himself that way: “I, John, the apostle….” But he doesn’t. John also wrote three letters in the New Testament, that we call First John, Second John, and Third John…unoriginally. In Second John and Third John, he introduces himself as “the elder” to these churches to whom he’s writing. But here he doesn’t do that either. Rather, he introduces himself as “your brother.” He’s wanting to level out some commonality between them; he’s wanting to highlight his connection to them, not so much his authority over them, although that’s there. He’s wanting to share with them and to show that he is sharing with them in all that they’re experiencing. He’s their brother.

And he goes on and adds this other term, “partner” to emphasize that very point. It’s a Greek word that’s related to the word koinonia; fellowship is how we often translate it. Here, it has the idea of someone who is sharing with other people—sharing resources, sharing life, sharing experiences. You see, he’s isolated from these people, these churches that he loves, these Christians that are his real family, his brothers and sisters. But he wants them to know that he is actually sharing their experiences. Even though they’re apart, they’re not in the same place, they’re going through the same things, and he wants to establish that at the beginning of this message. “I’m with you in everything that’s going on in your life right now.”

But he specifies three realities that he shares with these believers to whom he’s writing, but what we’re going to see is that they’re actually one thing. First, he says, “I am your partner in the tribulation,” partner/sharer in the tribulation. This Greek word is an important word in the New Testament; it pops up all the time throughout the New Testament, but just a few times in the

1 See John 13:23; 20:2; 21:7.

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book of Revelation. The physical meaning of the word has to do with pressure, something that squeezes like a vice or crushes, and it gets applied to any kind of pressure that we experience in life. We can talk about stress; they would’ve talked about tribulation. But it gets applied to all these different circumstances, whether it’s this angst that we feel internally, or it’s pressure brought on by people in power taking advantage of people without power—what we might call persecution—or oppression of any kind. Tribulation is this squeezing, this crushing of your life, and it takes all kinds of different forms. And John says, “I’m with you in your experiences of pressure and suffering and tribulation,” which is the word he uses for this.

He’s in exile; he’s been isolated from them; he’s being punished by the Roman authorities, it seems. He’s been exiled; that’s a form that this tribulation takes. But he’s writing to these Christians in Asia Minor, in these seven particular cities where Christians gather, Sunday after Sunday, to hear the word of God, just like we are this morning, and they’re experiencing this tribulation as well that takes on many different forms. John’s writing at the end of the first century under a Roman emperor named Domitian, who, at least during part of his reign, targeted Christians because they wouldn’t worship him as a god or they wouldn’t worship the Roman gods. That felt threatening for this power-hungry emperor, and so he targeted them as an enemy, and pulled down the full weight of his Roman authority to punish them, often entering their houses to take away their possessions, taking their family away, arresting them, putting them in prison, where they might be tortured, and ultimately executed under Roman authority, hanging them on crosses or cutting off their heads. And so John is wanting to tell them, “I’m with you in all of that. I’m isolated here, suffering the same tribulation that you are, and I want you to know that I’m with you, even if I’m physically distant from you. I am your partner, your sharer in this tribulation that we are going through together.”

But then he adds a word that begins to disorient us already. He says, “I am your partner in the tribulation…and the kingdom.” And of course he’s referring to the kingdom of God. And he’s saying, “Right now, I am a partner with you in the kingdom of God”—the kingdom that Jesus brought into this world when he came into this world because he is the king. Where the king goes, so goes the kingdom. And so Jesus brings his authority into this world in the incarnation; when he comes and lives in this world as a man, he is coming as the human king, the true king that God had always designed for humanity to sit under. He brings the kingdom, and so now John is saying, “We are truly citizens of that kingdom right now…even as we go through this tribulation; even as we suffer in this world, we are truly citizens of the kingdom of God.”2 And he reminds them of that up front; he wants them to remember who they are; we are sharers together in the privileges of the kingdom of God. We are the citizens of the kingdom of God. That citizenship is more important than your Roman citizenship, or your American citizenship, or your Texan citizenship, since we’re so very proud of that. As Christians, we ought to recognize that our citizenship in heaven is more important than any earthly citizenship that we have, and John wants to remind them of that right up front: “Your identity is rooted in the true king, in your connection to him.”

2 Cf. Joseph L. Trafton, Reading Revelation: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament Series; rev. ed.; Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2005), pg. 26, who writes, “John and his readers share the kingdom now as they patiently endure the tribulation.”

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And so we together are partners, sharers together in the kingdom, even as we suffer tribulation. You see, the tribulation and the kingdom go together. That’s not something that they would have expected; that’s not something we expect. But the Bible tells us plainly—the New Testament is very plain on this point—the kingdom of God and the tribulation in this world go together. Jesus said, the night before he died, “In the world you will have tribulation, but…I have overcome the world”3; and he’s saying, “I have overcome the world as king! I have won the royal victory.” And he does that through the cross and the resurrection. And so now, his followers, his subjects—we are subjects of the King of Kings—now, we live in this world, experiencing tribulation every day in a variety of forms, but that doesn’t deny our citizenship as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. That’s who we really are, no matter what happens to us, no matter what form tribulation takes—whether it be cancer that eats away our body, whether it be the government raining down prohibitions on us to preach the gospel or to meet openly, as it so often does in many countries, or whether people come in and kill us with guns—we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. You see, the tribulation and the kingdom can go together because the tribulation ends; the tribulation has an end date, a certain end date, but the kingdom of God has no end date; it will never end! So, even as we experience the turmoil and the tension of tribulation and kingdom, we know and we can have hope that the kingdom will never end; the tribulation will end.

And so, he starts here, to encourage this point of enduring suffering. Why should we endure? Because tribulation will end; the kingdom will never end. So, let’s endure. And so, he highlights right here at the very beginning, and he adds that very point. See it again here: “I am your partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance.” If tribulation and kingdom are going to be going on at the same time, that calls us out to respond with patient endurance. When we face suffering of any kind—bodily, the oppression of enemies or evil governments—the call on us is to patiently endure suffering. And John puts that here first, but notice also what he adds here; he adds the phrase, “that are in Jesus.” You see, the tribulation is in Jesus; the kingdom is in Jesus; and the patient endurance is in Jesus. And as Christians, our fundamental identity is that we are in Jesus, in Christ, and so our identity is wrapped up in being connected to him. What did he experience in his life, if not tribulation, even as he was the king? Tribulation and kingdom, he experienced both of those in his own earthly ministry. How did he deal with it? He patiently endured…all the way to the cross, all the way to death, and thereby, paradoxically, winning the victory over his enemies. And so, if Jesus the king experienced tribulation and kingdom all at the same time, we as his followers should expect nothing different.4 Didn’t he call us to take up our crosses when he called us to follow him? Didn’t he call us to die? Isn’t it Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said, “The call to discipleship is a call to die”?5 And so it is. We endure suffering, we endure tribulation because we’re citizens of the kingdom, because we’re in Christ. Paul used a similar phrase; he encouraged us to share in the sufferings of the Messiah,6 and that’s exactly what John is picturing here, and he’s highlighting his continuity with these churches in Asia

3 John 16:33.4 Cf. N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone (For Everyone Bible Study Guides; London: SPCK, 2011), pg.

10, who writes, “How can the ‘kingdom’—which means the sovereign rule—sit together with suffering and patient endurance? That is part of the whole point of the book. Jesus himself won the victory through his suffering, and so must his people.”

5 The actual quote is from Bonhoeffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship, and it goes like this: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

6 2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10. Peter also sounds this note in 1 Pet. 4:13.

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Minor. “I’m in exile; I’m isolated from you, but I’m experiencing the same suffering that you are, even as I experience the same relationship with the king that you do.” And so that’s where he starts this letter; that’s how he introduces himself, in the midst of this message that is to be given to these seven churches. “We are partners together in this.” And so these three phrases—the tribulation, the kingdom, and the patient endurance—are all one thing. They’re really describing the normal Christian life. The normal Christian life is the life in Jesus that’s characterized by tribulation, the benefits of the kingdom of God at the same time, and our response of patient endurance in the midst of it all.7

And so he then tells about his circumstances when he receives this message: “I was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” He had been exiled, it seems, for preaching the gospel.8 Now, when we read that, we often think that the Roman government has come in and isolated John because he’s making converts, right? He’s taking Roman citizens and turning them into Christians who don’t worship the Roman gods, who don’t live the Roman way anymore. And that’s true, to be sure, but I think there’s something else going on here. You see, John is involved with these seven churches that he writes to here.

You can see them up on a map; they’re listed in this order, and we’ll come back to the sequence there in just a second. But John has had dealings with these churches. Think about it: he’s probably an old man by now. He’s probably been ministering among these churches for 30 or 40

7 Cf. Craig S. Keener, Revelation (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), pg. 91, who writes, quoting F. F. Bruce, “[John’s] placing of ‘the kingdom’ between ‘the tribulation’ and ‘the patient endurance’ underlines a recurrent New Testament theme—that the patient endurance of tribulation is the way into the kingdom of God. If, then, John encourages his friends in the churches of Asia to stand firm, he is not cheering them on from the sidelines; he is involved with the same struggle.”

8 Cf. Keener, Revelation, pg. 82, who writes, “Literally he was there ‘on account of’ God’s word—as a punishment by the state for preaching and testifying about Jesus (cf. 6:9; 12:11).”

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years by this point. And so, I think more of what might be going on here is that John, this elder, is presenting a threat to the Roman authorities because he is strengthening these churches. He is building them up by his continued preaching of the gospel, week in and week out, to these believers. Yes, he’s making converts, but more than that, he’s encouraging these believers in Asia Minor to keep on resisting the oppression of the Roman government, and to say, “Don’t conform! Hold fast to Jesus!”

And so the Roman authorities are looking at this and saying, “They are strong because of this old man continuing his ministry in their midst. We must eliminate his influence, if we’re ever going to stamp out this Christian movement.” So, they perceive this old man having this power, but they won’t kill him because that would just make him a martyr, a hero in that sense. And so they say, “I know how to fix him: let’s take him away, let’s isolate him from the churches; let’s exile him on the island of Patmos, and then the churches will die because we’ve taken their leader away.” I hope you can begin to see the irony. John is exiled on the island of Patmos, where God gives him this. The Roman governor says, “I know what will eliminate John and his influence in strengthening the Christians: let’s isolate him, let’s exile him to the island of Patmos.” God gives him the book of Revelation that becomes Scripture, that initially is sent out to these seven churches and served to build them up evermore because it’s God’s very Word.9 And then beyond that, 2,000 years later we’re being built up by this same book! I love it when we can see how God takes what is evil and wicked—the Roman governor trying to eliminate an elder of the church—and turns it for exponentially beyond what ever could have been imagined, good and benefits. This is an example of that very thing.

And so, he’s in exile, and he receives this message. Verse 10 tells us more about his circumstances: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” He probably just means, “I was in a posture where I could receive revelation from God.” It seems to be a bit of a unique experience for John, apostles, prophets. He’s probably thinking of having an experience like what the prophet Ezekiel had, where the Spirit would pick Ezekiel up and carry him off to places to give him a special message for God’s people. But John specifies that this happened on the Lord’s day. This is probably a reference to Sunday morning, or Sunday at least, the first day of the week when Christians were gathering,10 and I think he mentions it on purpose. This is not just a throwaway reference—“By the way, it was Sunday when this happened”—but I think he’s wanting to strengthen that tie to these seven churches, because what are they doing on the Lord’s day? They’re gathering together, just like we are, to hear God’s Word, and what would normally have probably been happening was that John would have been there, at least in one of those churches, preaching to them, giving them God’s Word, expounding God’s Word to them.11 Well,

9 Cf. Wright, Revelation, pgs. 9-10, who writes, “He is there ‘because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus’; this probably means that the authorities have put him there, in exile, as a punishment for his fearless teaching, and to try to stop his work having any further effect. The result has been the exact opposite. Exile has given him time to pray, to reflect, and now to receive the most explosive vision of God’s power and love.”

10 The meaning of this phrase has always been debated. The best discussion if it that I know of is Richard Bauckham, “The Lord’s Day” in From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation (edited by D. A. Carson; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1999), pgs. 221-250.

11 Cf. Bauckham, “The Lord’s Day,” pgs. 240-241, who writes, “In its immediate context [Revelation 1:10] completes the description of 1:9, where John tells his hearers that he shares with them the situation of faithful witness under trial to which the message of the whole book is directed. Then in 1:10 he establishes also a temporal connection; he receives his visions on the day when the churches meet for corporate worship and on the same day his prophecy will be read aloud (1:3) in the church meeting.”

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now he’s gone, but he’s still receiving a message from the Lord for them, and so he tells them up front, “As you guys were gathered together to receive God’s Word and to worship God, I also was receiving from God for you, just like we’ve always done, and even more so.”12

And so, he then hears this voice: “I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.” Notice the comparisons that we’re going to see. John had an experience, and he is grasping for language to describe it to his readers so that they can understand what he experienced. Now, if two of you had the same experience or witnessed the same experience, you might tell it in different ways, you might describe it in different ways. Or, even if one of us had an experience, we might describe it one way on one day and ten years down the road look back at that experience and describe it a totally different way. John is borrowing language here purposefully to highlight the meaning of all of this. We’ll see more of this in the coming verses, but here he’s heard this loud voice, and he’s trying to communicate what it was like. What did it sound like? And he says, “like a trumpet, like a ram’s horn being blown.” And I think he just means, “It was loud and clear.”13 That seems to be the point of the comparison perhaps.14 But he’s trying to get us and them as readers to understand what it was like.

But here’s what the voice said, commanding him: “Write what you see in a book.” Now, don’t think of a bound volume like this, right? Those weren’t invented quite yet; it’d be a few more years after this…book…was written that we get that. He’s telling him to write it down in a scroll, right? Unroll it, write down in columns, describe what you see, and then cut it off from the roll and roll up what you’ve written, seal it, and then send it out. Okay? So, he says, “Send it to the seven churches.”

Now, as you look at this map, you can see the orange line that’s drawn, and if you read the names there, they’re in the sequence that they’re listed there in verse 11. This is probably a postal route, a normal way of carrying mail. So, imagine what’s going on here. So, John writes down this scroll, he finishes it up, he cuts it off from the roll, rolls it up, seals it, and then he hands it to a messenger who can leave the island. John can’t leave; he’s in exile; he’s not allowed to leave. So, a messenger takes it in hand, gets in a boat, goes over and sails on over to a port, and goes into the city of Ephesus. What does he do there? He finds an elder of the church at Ephesus, and he tells the elder, “I have a message from the Lord that was given to the apostle John in exile.” And the elder then says, “Great! Let me gather together all of the believers in

12 Cf. Keener, Revelation, pg. 84, who writes, “John, whose message will be read when the Asian churches assemble on the ‘Lord’s Day,’ probably was himself in worship on that day when the vision came.”

13 The clearness of the notes blown on a trumpet or a ram’s horn is referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. 14:8 to illustrate the point that what is done in public worship ought to be clear and understandable to people. This suggests that a noteworthy characteristic of a trumpet/bugle/ram’s horn/shofar is that it can produce clearly distinct notes, and so it could be a readily available symbol to convey that some sound is “loud and clear,” as we might say. Cf. Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (The New International Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), pg. 56, who writes, “There is no possibility of misunderstanding the command because the voice is as clear and unmistakable as the sound of a trumpet.”

14 John is likely thinking especially of the trumpet sounded at Mt. Sinai when God appeared to Moses and the people of Israel to initiate the covenant with them in Exod. 19. There is also a reference to seeing “the voice/sound of the trumpet” in Exod. 20:18. See G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (The New International Greek Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), pgs. 207-208. This connection would connect the trumpet-sound of Jesus’ voice with the sound of God’s own arrival on Mt. Sinai to begin a relationship with his people.

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Ephesus” (probably on the next Lord’s day, the next Sunday); “let’s gather them together, and then we’re going to get up and we’re going to have somebody read through the whole thing, start to finish.” So, somebody’s going to unroll that scroll—whether that be the messenger that carried it or the elder or somebody else—they’re going to stand up and read from start to finish what we know of as the book of Revelation. It would’ve taken about an hour to do, assuming that they didn’t give some explanatory comments along the way. But that’s normal practice in the ancient world. That’s the way all of the New Testament documents—Gospels, letters, and this wonderful book as well—were probably handled. The first time they got together, they get together and somebody stands up and reads the whole thing start to finish. It takes an hour long, and they listened well…I trust.

And so, what happened then? Well, probably, somebody amongst the Ephesian Christians copied it down for them to keep and continue reflecting on, because they recognized that this is God’s Word to us, and then the original scroll is then handed off to a messenger who would take it on to the second city, Smyrna there, and then they would go around to all seven churches.

Now, if you looked at a full map of this area, and you looked at all the cities that were there, you would recognize several other cities from the Bible. You would recognize other cities that we know had churches, thriving churches even, and you might wonder, “Why just these seven? And why not ten? Why not five? Why theses seven?”15 Well, what you begin to see very clearly—and then if you’re immersed in the Old Testament and the ancient world more generally—numbers take on symbolic significance, even beyond their literal significance. And so, yes, this is addressed to those seven specific congregations, but the number seven is surely, surely significant, in that he’s saying, “This message is for these seven churches, but it’s also for the whole church.”16 The number seven often signifies completeness or wholeness. It does so in Scripture, and it does so in the ancient world in other places. And so, he’s probably giving us a hint already: this book is not just for those believers in the first century, and it’s not just a book for the believers who will be alive at the very end of history. It’s a book that is directed and addressed to all Christians of all times and all places.17 It’s for you and for me. And so we need to see what’s here this morning.

And it’s verses 12-16 that give us the heart of this picture and shows us the glory of the risen Jesus. And I’d love to sit here for a long, long, long time and talk more about it, but we’re going to run through this a little bit quickly. What I’d like to do is akin to opening up a fire hydrant and asking you to come and drink. So, take in as much as you can and be drenched by the rest and we’ll shake it off later, but what you need to know is that John is seeing these things. Alright? With his eyes, he is seeing this picture, and now he’s been commanded and commissioned to

15 Cf. James L. Resseguie, The Revelation of John: A Narrative Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009), pg. 74, who writes, “Other—some more notable—churches could be added to this list of churches in Asia Minor, such as Miletus, Troas, and Colossae. But John limits the number to seven for symbolic purposes: seven represents the church universal.”

16 Cf. Mounce, Revelation, pg. 57, who writes, “The order in which the churches are addressed is strictly geographical. They do not portray seven successive periods of church history. Although the letters are written to real churches of the first century, they are relevant to the church universal, for the strengths and weaknesses of the seven are characteristic of individual churches throughout history.”

17 Cf. Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (New Testament Theology; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pg. 16, who writes, “By addressing seven churches John indicates that his message is addressed to specific churches as representative of all the churches.”

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describe it on paper. That’s hard with normal stuff, but this is not normal stuff. And so he’s grasping for language, but what he has done, I am convinced: he is describing this picture with phrases that are borrowed from the Old Testament at every single point. And he does that because every point of the vision, every piece that he identifies—because he saw more than this, but he’s only able to focus here and focus there—the pieces that he pulls up have a meaning, have a significance beyond, “Well, it was just nice that I saw that.” And the way that you understand what he means, what the message of the imagery is, is by identifying its Old Testament roots. And so what I’d like to do is to read through a series of Old Testament verses; they’re in your sermon notes if you’d like to follow along, five Old Testament passages, and I’m going to just read through them, because what I want to happen to you is what I think happened to at least some of those Christians in these cities. They knew their Old Testament really, really well, and so when they heard certain phrases, they called to mind certain passages of Scripture, and I want that to happen for you. And so I want to read these verses that I think are centrally in John’s mind as he borrows these phrases, because that’s going to be the key to understanding: Why does Jesus appear this way? We already know that this is going to be a vision about Jesus, so I’ll go ahead and give you that. Why does he appear this way, with these features? And each point is important and is drawn out of the Old Testament. Five passages are central, and there are a few others that are kind of on the margins that are there,18 but we won’t take time to read them, and then after I’m done reading these Old Testament verses, I’m just going to read through verses 12-16 and allow you to make the connections. Now, I’ve underlined words in your sermon notes, so that you can visually make the connections, but I hope you’ll go home later and read those Old Testament passages alongside this passage in Revelation, and then think about the connection between the two. We’re not going to take the time to do that this morning, but I want to read through them, and then I’ll give you a summary that’s there in your sermon notes as well after we read through the verses, so let me read these Old Testament verses; I’ll make a few comments to situate them contextually, and we’ll see how we do.

So, picking up in your sermon notes there, Daniel 7:9; Daniel is seeing a vision here. So, notice that: John’s seeing a vision, and he goes back to the Old Testament where Old Testament folks saw visions. Interesting. Daniel 7:9, Daniel writes, As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. Daniel sees God sitting on his throne; he’s identified as the Ancient of Days. A few verses later in Daniel 7, the same vision—so, we’re looking at a vision of heaven, God sitting on his heavenly throne—a few verses later, Daniel 7:13, another figure appears. Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel writes, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

18 Cf. the excellent summary of Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2002), pg. 78, who writes, “It contains rich intertextual echoes, combining Dan. 7 and 10, with the description of Christ also adding elements from the priestly tradition of Exodus (the robe and girdle), the prophetic tradition of Ezekiel (the feet and the voice), and the historical tradition of Judges (the face).” Although, as will become clear, my own analysis differs on some of the details from Osborne.

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Now, the next passage skips ahead, still looking in the book of Daniel; Daniel chapter 7 is a vision that Daniel saw one time; Daniel chapter 8 is another vision that Daniel saw on a different occasion; and then Daniel chapters 10-12 is the final vision that Daniel sees on yet another occasion,19 and we’re picking up in the middle of Daniel 10. Daniel 10:5-6, Daniel writes, I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. Now, if you read through Daniel 10, you quickly realize that this is not a man; he initially sees and he describes what he sees; it looks like a man, but you quickly realize as you read through Daniel 10 that this is actually an angel that he sees.20 Daniel sees an angel who’s been sent to him to deliver a message, to kind of navigate this vision that Daniel saw.

The next passage is Ezekiel 43:2, another vision. Ezekiel receives a vision that’s chapter 40 through chapter 48, the grand conclusion of the book of Ezekiel, a vision of a grand temple being put together, and it starts functioning with priests and folks and sacrifices and things of that nature. And in the middle of that vision, Ezekiel 43:2 says, And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.

Now, the last passage that I’ve listed here is not a prophetic text: 2 Samuel 23:3-4. This is a part of what’s recorded as the last words of King David. As King David is about to die, he composes a poem, a song, and we get those words in 2 Samuel 23:3-4; David writes, The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.21

So, with some of that rattling around in your brains, or sitting there on the paper in front of you, let’s look at Revelation 1 verses 12-16. So, John is now going to describe what he saw. John writes, Revelation 1:12: Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands. We’ll come back to them; you didn’t see seven golden lampstands or anything in these verses; we’ll come back to them because Jesus will explain their meaning to John and to us. Verse 13: and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of

19 Cf. the interesting observation of Ranko Stefanovic, Revelation of Jesus Christ: Commentary on the Book of Revelation (second ed.; Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2009), pg. 96, who writes, “A comparison of the last vision of Daniel (Dan. 10-12) with John’s first vision (1:12-20) clearly reveals that the book of Revelation begins where the book of Daniel concludes….The book of Revelation covers the history of the Christian era from John’s day until the Second Coming. This suggests that Revelation builds on Daniel; the two books thus function like a two-volume set.”

20 Cf. Trafton, Reading Revelation, pg. 28, who writes, “[T]he reference to a ‘golden belt’ (RSV ‘girdle’)…probably reflects the influence of Dan 10:5, where Daniel sees a man, apparently the angel Gabriel (cf. Dan 9:20-23), clothed in linen with gold around his waist.”

21 I have not found anyone else who has drawn a connection between Rev. 1:16 and 2 Sam. 2:23-24, but this Old Testament passage is actually the only passage that speaks of the “sun shining.” Many students of Scripture connect this description in Rev. 1:16 with the words of Judges 5:31, which is the conclusion of Deborah’s song. There, God’s people, or more specifically God’s victorious army, are compared with the sun rising “in its strength.” If this is the background John has in mind, then the point would seem to be that Jesus’ face shines reflecting his victory over his enemies.

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man, clothed with a long robe—this appears to be a priestly robe—clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash (or belt) around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars (we’ll come back to them as well), from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. Now, if you’ll put that last slide up on the screen, we’ll through just a brief summary of what the whole picture is meaning to convey in all of these pieces. You might be able to see it better in your sermon notes; it’s small there, too, but I’ll read it, so….

What is this vision trying to tell us? Here it is in a long sentence, with lots of commas and semicolons. John sees the human figure who receives an eternal kingship in Daniel 7:13-14, wearing the priestly robe of Exodus 28:4,22 (you can go look up those other verses later perhaps), with a golden sash like the angelic figure of Daniel 10:5, but higher….You see, in Daniel 10, Daniel saw the angel wearing a golden belt around his waist, but John sees this figure wearing a golden sash (“sash” and “belt” are the same word) up around his chest, and I think that’s on purpose; that’s meant to communicate that this figure that John sees is of higher rank, higher dignity, higher power than the angel of Daniel 10.23 Didn’t we learn something about that in the book of Hebrews? Jesus is greater than angels, better than angels, and so that’s what John sees here. …With white hair like the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9—so, like God24—with fiery eyes25 like the eyes of the angelic figure of Daniel 10:6,26 with glowing metallic feet like the metallic arms and legs of the angelic figure of Daniel 10:6,27 with a voice roaring like the glory of God in Ezekiel 43:2, with the sword-like mouth of the Servant of the Lord, the Servant of Yahweh, in Isaiah 49:2—the sword coming out of his mouth representing the Word of God that is spoken to judge the nations, and isn’t that a large part of the book of Revelation?—whose face shines like the sun of the Davidic King ruling justly from 2 Samuel 23:3-4.28 So, that’s a very fast-paced and

22 So argues Mounce, Revelation, pgs. 57-58, who writes, “As recipient of God’s revelation in v. 1 he is a prophet. As ‘ruler of the kings of the earth’ in v. 5 he is king. And the high-priestly garments of v. 13 present him as priest (cf. Exod 28:4; 29:5). The Greek word translated ‘a robe reaching down to his feet’ (podērēs) occurs only here in the NT. It is found seven times in the LXX, and in every case but one it refers to the attire of the high priest.”

23 Cf. Mounce, Revelation, pg. 58, who writes, “[H]igh girding (‘around his chest’) denotes the dignity of an important office, suggests that this part of the description is intended to set forth the high-priestly function of Christ.”

24 Cf. Keener, Revelation, pg. 100, who writes, “The white hair, of course, means neither that Jesus was blond (as in some portrayals) nor that he was on the verge of dying from old age; it recalls the symbolically ‘aged’ hair of the ‘Ancient of Days’ (Dan. 7:9), reminding us that Jesus is God in the flesh.”

25 The significance of his eyes being pictured as fire is probably best summarized in the comment of Dennis E. Johnson, “Revelation” in The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), pg. 2464: “As he stands among the lampstands, Jesus’ eyes like a flame of fire see through facades. He can say to each church, ‘I know,’ infallibly diagnosing its condition (e.g., Rev. 2:18-19).”

26 Cf. Trafton, Reading Revelation, pg. 28, who writes, “The eyes being like ‘a flame of fire’ (1:14) combines Daniel’s characterization of the throne of the Ancient of Days as ‘a flame of fire’ (Dan 7:9 LXX) with his characterization of the man in Dan 10:5 as having eyes like ‘flaming torches’ (Dan 10:6).”

27 Cf. Trafton, Reading Revelation, pg. 28, who writes, “The feet ‘like burnished bronze’ (1:15)…recall Daniel’s continued description of the man in Dan 10:5 as having arms and feet ‘like the gleam of burnished bronze’ (Dan 10:6), as well as Ezekiel’s description of the legs and the feet of the four living creatures as sparkling ‘like burnished bronze’ (Ezek 1:7).”

28 John may also be reflecting his own memory of when he saw Jesus’ face shining like the sun in the Transfiguration as recorded in Matt. 17:2. So suggests Mounce, Revelation, pg. 60.

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undetailed summary of the picture that we’re given of the glory of the risen Jesus in Revelation 1:12-16.

Let’s see how John responds to this initially, Revelation 1:17. So, in this paragraph, Jesus is going to reach down to comfort John, he’s going to raise him up to commission him, he’s going to identify himself, and that’s interesting because it seems like John doesn’t recognize who this is…yet. He’s describing what he hears and what he sees, but it seems that he’s not real clear on what’s going on. That seems reasonable to me, if I put myself in John’s shoes. And then he explains a mystery about the stars and the lampstands. So, verses 17-20: When I saw him, John writes, I fell at his feet as though dead. (That’s the same thing Daniel did when he saw this angel in Daniel 10.) But he laid his right hand on me. Pause there for just a moment. Notice: the right hand that holds the seven stars—and we haven’t talked about what that’s all about yet, but notice—that hand, the right hand that holds the seven stars, reaches down to comfort John in his fear and to raise him up.29 The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand reaches down with that same hand to comfort John and raise him up. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, [even]30 the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. “I am the first and the last”—those words, three times in the book of Isaiah, the Lord himself, Yahweh himself says, “I am the first, I am the last, there is no god besides me.” And here, this figure, Jesus, is saying those very words. I mean, if you think about it, there can be only one “first,” right? There can be only one “last.” And it’s God! And Jesus is here identifying himself as God, fully! Fully God. “I am the first, I am the last, and the living one,” the source of life. Life is what Jesus has and what Jesus gives. He has the power of life. And then, right after saying that, he says, “I died.”31 John—speaking to John here, that apostle who knew Jesus so well, who was able to call himself “the one Jesus loved,” the one that seems to have a closer relationship with Jesus during his earthly ministry than any of the other disciples—he must be reminded here of who this is, this; this is not recognizable as the one against whose chest he lay at the last supper. And so Jesus says to him, “John, I died; you saw it; you watched from a distance as I hung on the cross. You were there. I died on that cross. I died…for you and for all of my people. I died. That’s who I am; that’s what I did. And, behold….” Just a reminder: when you see the word “behold” in the Bible, you need to pause and let the author of the text grab you by the collar, get your attention focused; he wants you to see. “Look here John! Look here readers! ‘I am alive forevermore, never to die again!’” Jesus’ death, what he just mentioned, beat Death, conquered Death, so that he will never suffer death again. He will never experience death; he is alive forevermore.

And then he adds, “I have the keys of Death and Hades.” I’ve reflected on why does he add this curious phrase. Keys—John didn’t see that in the vision, it doesn’t seem. John doesn’t describe what he saw as holding a key ring, or having keys in his hand. But Jesus says, “I own these keys.

29 Cf. Resseguie, Revelation, pg. 79, who writes, “The right hand that holds the stars in 1:16 is the same hand that is placed on John. The one who controls the cosmos consoles the individual.”

30 The ESV has “and” here, but the Greek word could be translated “even,” and I slipped it in that way unintentionally as I was reading the passage aloud.

31 Cf. David E. Aune, “Stories of Jesus in the Apocalypse of John” in Contours of Christology in the New Testament (edited by Richard N. Longenecker; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), pg. 313, who writes, “This phrase is probably a double entendre, or language that lends itself to more than one meaning, for it calls to mind numerous Old Testament passages that refer to the God of Israel as ‘the living God’ (e.g., Deut 5:26; 1 Sam 17:26; Jer 10:10; Dan 6:27), yet is followed in v. 18 by a reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus, who by virtue of the latter event is truly ‘the living one.’”

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I have them; as a result of my death and resurrection, I own these keys.” And, in my Bible, and I think in most English Bibles, “Death” is capitalized here. Because John, Jesus, as he says this is personifying death as the great enemy, the great enemy that has been beaten by his death. He’s beaten him and taken his keys. What do keys do? They open doors; they give access; they let people in. But that can be good or bad. In fact, they can open a door that then ushers you into a wonderful place, or they can open a door to a prison cell from which you will never return.32 Jesus is saying, “I now have the keys, the power over, the authority over Death and Hades.” Hades is not Hell; Hades is the place where dead people’s spirits go. Hell is a place where people go, body and soul, after the resurrection on Judgment Day. He’s not talking about that place; he’s not talking about the lake of fire that gets mentioned later in Revelation; he’s talking about the place where the spirits of the dead go, and he’s saying, “I have power over that. I have the keys!”

And I think we’re supposed to take great comfort from this word. You see, his original audience, these Christians in Asia Minor, were being persecuted by the official government that had the power to chop off their heads. They were likely going to face death, and the message of the book, as I remind you, is to see Jesus in his risen glory so that you might endure suffering all the way to death. And if you see that Jesus himself, this one that we know of as the Good Shepherd, this one that we know of as the King of Kings, he is the one who has authority over death, we should take great comfort because it means that no one dies unless Jesus allows it.33 We’re supposed to take really good comfort from that because we know who Jesus is; in his sovereign goodness, he has the power over death and life. My wife’s niece, in her early 20s, found her 19-month old baby dead last week, and Tamara had a chance to talk with her on the phone that evening, and as much as she could get out, one of the things that my niece said was, “I don’t understand why God allowed my baby to die.” I don’t either. But I don’t have to have an answer to the “why” question to know that, if Jesus is in charge of death, I can trust him in having good reasons for all that he does. And so, to know that Jesus and Jesus alone has the power over Death and Hades—nobody else has these keys. You see, cancer doesn’t have the authority over death; the government doesn’t have the authority over death; ISIS doesn’t have the authority over death. Jesus alone has the authority over death…and he’s good; he’s really good. And so we’re supposed to take comfort from this image of Jesus being the only one who ever opens the door for anybody to die.34

Out of that, Jesus commissions John to write again; verse 19: Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven

32 Cf. James M. Hamilton, Jr., Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (Preaching the Word; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), pg. 50, who writes, “Moreover, having died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and having been raised from the dead, Jesus has ‘the keys of Death and Hades,’ which means that he is in control of who gets locked up and who gets liberated.”

33 Cf. Beale, Revelation, pg. 215, who writes, “[T]hrough the victory of the resurrection Christ became king even over the realm of the dead in which he was formerly imprisoned. Now, not only is he no longer held in death’s bonds but he also holds sway over who is released and retained in that realm.”

34 Cf. Keener, Revelation, pg. 98, who writes, “Yet because Jesus holds the keys to death and Hades, he—rather than the Roman emperor or believers’ other persecutors—controls who lives and dies. No hair of theirs will fall to the ground apart from his knowledge and will (Matt. 10:29-31), so those who trust his loving care do not need to fear. Death will not come to them by accident; when it comes, it comes only in the time our loving Lord permits it.”

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churches. Now, as you can perhaps imagine, if you’ve studied the book of Revelation at all, you know that both pieces of this vision are debated, what’s going on here about the lampstands and the stars. The majority opinion on the stars being the angels of the seven churches has been throughout church history, I think, that Jesus is referring to heavenly beings, angels in the traditional sense that we think about, and the idea then comes that each local church has somewhat of a “guardian angel,” a heavenly figure that is somehow responsible for each body of believers, and that’s who’s being referred to here.35 That’s the majority opinion throughout church history, I think. The minority report, throughout church history as well, has been that this is a reference to human messengers. The word translated “angel” just means messenger, and very often it refers to heavenly messengers, messengers sent from heaven to earth, usually, to deliver messages to people. But it also refers to human messengers delivering messages to people. Personally, my opinion is with the minority report, and here’s why36 (and this may just be my own limitations and my own lack of understanding): it’s hard for me to figure out why the Lord would send a message to a heavenly being through a human apostle.37 The letters, seven letters are going to come up next, Revelation 2-3, addressed to these specific churches, but they’re actually addressed directly to the “angel” of the church, and it’s just hard for me to imagine why Jesus would send a message on human paper to a heavenly being.38 That’s just me, and so I go with the minority report and say that this is a messenger to the church. Now, what does that mean beyond that? I’m not sure. Is it an elder? Is it a pastor? Is it a leader? I’m not sure. Is it the messenger who carries the book from John off the island of Patmos? Maybe. I don’t know. At least today, my conclusion is that that’s what we’re referring to, a church leader of some kind. If that’s true, here’s the point, here’s why that should be such good news to us: he saw in the vision Jesus holding the seven stars, which now Jesus tells us those are the messengers of the churches, if that’s a reference to human church leaders, that ought to be really comforting to us in the body because it suggests that we ought to do what the book of Hebrews said in chapter 13: obey and submit to your leaders, or, as Pastor Barry said a couple of weeks ago, “Put your trust in your leaders.” Why? Because Jesus holds them in his right hand, and if Jesus is holding your leaders in his right hand, you can trust them…perhaps.

35 See, for example, Ian Boxall, The Revelation of Saint John (Black’s New Testament Commentary; London: Continuum, 2006), pg. 44, who writes, “Most likely Revelation evokes the Israelite belief that each nation or people had its corresponding heavenly guardian. These angels are the angelic representatives of the seven congregations, who are ultimately answerable for the failures of their earthly charges.”

36 Cf. Daniel Green, “Revelation” in The Moody Bible Commentary (edited by Michael A. Rydelnik et al; Chicago: Moody, 2014), s.v. Rev. 1:12-16, who writes, “Another permissible translation here could be ‘messengers.’ This is preferred as the word most likely refers to responsible human leaders of these churches as held in the hand of God during perilous times (Dn 12:3), rather than to spirits. These messengers appeared to have responsibility for the spiritual oversight of the church, making it unlikely that these are angels, and it is equally unlikely that God would use a human agent (John) to communicate with angelic beings.”

37 Cf. Paige Patterson, Revelation (The New American Commentary 39; Nashville: B&H, 2012), pg. 72, who writes, “If John is the last of the intermediaries receiving the message of the risen Christ assisted by angels, what is the purpose for John’s writing the message from angels to give to other angels? And how, in turn, do these angels of the churches ferry John’s words to their congregations? No precedent appears in the Bible for either writing or addressing churches by angels.”

38 Cf. Osborne, Revelation, pg. 99, “The primary objection to this [view that angels are being addressed] is that the letters of the next two chapters address the problems of the churches and demand repentance from many—strange if the addressees were literal angels.” This comment notwithstanding, Osborne later concludes that he believes these are in fact angels.

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The seven lampstands, more easy to determine here. The seven lampstands are the seven churches.39 That was the first thing that John saw, right? He turned and saw seven lampstands—so, seven candlestick-kind-of things, with light shining bright—and in the middle of it is Jesus standing there in all his risen glory. The message of this is obvious and simple: Jesus is in the church. Jesus is in his people.40 If the seven churches are not only those seven local bodies that he wrote to, but a symbol for the whole church—both of those things I think are true—then that’s really comforting! The resurrected king, this figure that we see so powerfully portrayed here in this vision, is with us and even in us.41 That’s really comforting! He’s not just in heaven; he’s here; he’s with us. He’s in us to empower us by his Spirit, and that, I think, is the point of that piece of the vision.

So, with this picture on the table, what do we draw from this for ourselves? Why is this so fitting to open up on Easter Sunday of all Sundays? Well, if nothing else, it’s the resurrected Lord who’s addressing this letter—the whole book of Revelation is a letter sent to God’s people. So, the risen Lord is addressing us in this book. That’s enough! But, there’s perhaps more because when we see this glorious vision of this one who appears as the “one like a son of man” who is the King, the one wearing a priestly robe—he’s the King and the Priest!—he’s greater than the angels; he is God himself with this long white hair being depicted here; this one who is fully man, fully God is with us and for us, not only on Sunday morning, not only on Easter, but every day, then we ought to be celebrating Easter more than once a year. Because the fact is when we commune with Jesus, we’re communing with this guy! We’re communing with the one here, who is depicted as this gloriously powerful risen king. We get to meet with him every day! And certainly when we come together in this room, Sunday in and Sunday out, that’s what we’re here for. We want to hear his Word! And you’ve got to know: it’s this guy who’s addressing us every Sunday through the Word! It’s him who speaks! And so we hear and we want to hear the voice of the risen king, the one whose voice is loud and clear like a trumpet and powerful like the roar of many waters. But not only on Sunday mornings, every day of your life. If you want to sit down and commune with the King of Kings, guess what? He welcomes you into his presence! Every time you take this book in your lap, every time you put a CD in the car and it reads God’s Word to you, it’s him who’s speaking to you! It’s this glorified king, this risen Lord who speaks to you through the pages of this book! Every time you open these pages you’re sitting before him! And he wants you to see him. He wants you to see him like this, in all of his glory and in all

39 There is, in fact, likely more than meets the eye here. It is highly likely that the reason the church(es) is envisioned as a set of lampstands is to make a connection to the vision of a lampstand in Zech. 4. Lampstands were originally furniture in the tabernacle and temple. In Zech. 4, Zechariah the prophet sees a complicated vision that has as its centerpiece a (strange) lampstand, and the message of the vision clearly has to do with the rebuilding of the temple. However, while the message of that vision is quite simple—Zerubbabel will complete the construction of the second temple by the power of the Holy Spirit—it clearly has some extended significance beyond Zechariah’s day. The church is said to be the temple of the Holy Spirit repeatedly in the New Testament, and it is likely that this vision of Rev. 1 is communicating that same truth. For a rich discussion of this verse and its roots in Zech. 4, see especially G. K. Beale and Benjamin L. Gladd, Hidden But Now Revealed: A Biblical Theology of Mystery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014), pgs. 262-265.

40 Cf. Hamilton, Jr., Revelation, pg. 46, who writes, “Zechariah’s lampstand, which symbolized the presence of God in the temple, is fulfilled by the seven lampstands of Revelation, which symbolizes God’s presence in the seven churches to whom John writes (1:20; cf. 2:5).”

41 Cf. Wright, Revelation, pgs. 8-9, who writes, “But the seven churches—seven is the number of perfection, and the churches listed in verse 11 thus stand for all churches in the world, all places and all times—need to know that Jesus himself is standing in their midst, and that the ‘angels’ who represent and look after each of them are held in his right hand.”

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of his splendor because if you could see him like that, why would you run to lesser things? If you could see him like this, in his beauty, all things that distract us from that should get pushed to the side, or take their proper place in pointing to him as well. And so we wouldn’t be so quick to distort the things of this world and to take them into ourselves as gods. No, we look to the risen king, and we see him in all his glory, and everything that’s in this world ought to be seeking to find its place under him.

And so we want to commune with him; we want to hear from him; and we want to serve him. He’s our king; he’s the risen Lord of the universe, and he’s with us. He’s with us. If we could see him as he is, it doesn’t matter what suffering we face, whether our bodies break down into pieces—because they will—whether we lose those we love—because we will—whether the government implodes in on itself—because it will eventually—if we could see him as he really is—because none of that is going to change who he is—then we can endure all of it, endure all of it. And so let’s pray to that end, that he would give us the power to do just that.

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