Text: Revelation 1:4-18
Date: April 24, 2022
Event: The Second Sunday of Easter, Year C
Revelation 1:4-18 (EHV)
John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his own blood 6and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.
7Look, he is coming with clouds,
and every eye will see him,
including those who pierced him.
And all the nations of the earth will mourn because of him.
Yes. Amen.
8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, the one who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.
9I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingship and patient endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.
10I was in spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like a trumpet, 11saying, “Write what you see on a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. When I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was clothed with a robe that reached to his feet, and around his chest he wore a gold sash. 14His head and his hair were white, like white wool or like snow. His eyes were like blazing flames. 15His feet were like polished bronze being refined in a furnace. His voice was like the roar of many waters. 16He held seven stars in his right hand. A sharp two-edged sword was coming out of his mouth. His face was shining as the sun shines in all its brightness.
17When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last— 18the Living One. I was dead and, see, I am alive forever and ever! I also hold the keys of death and hell.”
See Jesus As He Is
It was halloween and the Mom and young daughter were going to go out trick-or-treating. Both had costumes, but Mom’s costume did a lot to change her appearance. She was tough to recognize with the mask over her face. As Mom walked into the living room, the daughter gasped and got scared. “Don’t worry,” Dad said, “It’s Mom!” Mom quickly took off the mask and wig to make clear that it was still the one who loved her daughter so dearly under the different-looking costume.
The daughter breathed a sigh of relief and off they went into the neighborhood. But periodically as they went, the young girl asked Mom to let her peek under the mask for the extra reassurance that it was, in fact, still Mom under there. Each time brought relief and a renewed confidence that she was safe and able to have a fun evening.
Maybe it’s not a halloween costume, but all of us need some reassurances from others in our lives that things are ok, right? Maybe a parent sits with a child and helps them think through that bigger project for school, and that child is reassured that their parent loves them and takes care of them. The boss that holds the employee’s feet to the fire a bit in a meeting comes over afterwards to see how she can help the employee with what is ahead. The friend who has been out of touch for a long while calls to check in on and assures the other person that he is always there for them if they need anything.
The same is true about Jesus. The whole season of Easter is going to be Jesus doing just that. Jesus’ resurrection is so massively important that he’s going to spend 40 days from Easter Sunday through his ascension making sure the disciples know beyond any doubt, that he has risen from the dead. As we said last weekend, Jesus’ resurrection was God’s stamp of approval on everything that Jesus had done. We know that all of our sins are forgiven because Jesus was raised from the dead. And because of that, as the disciples would go out into the world after Jesus’ ascension preaching this message, it was vital for them to know this for sure so that they could share it.
People needed to see Jesus as he is, not just the crucified, defeated man who died on Good Friday, but the resurrected, triumphant Savior that burst the tomb three days later. This is not a matter of fine points of doctrine or scholarly debate. The physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus is of the utmost importance for all of us for the assurance of eternal life with our God.
But it wasn’t just the post-Easter disciples that needed encouragement and reminders. Jesus would appear to his apostles at various times during the time of the New Testament to remind them, encourage them, and guide them. This was critical in that difficult period in-between Jesus’ ascension into heaven and before the New Testament was fully complete as a concrete record and reference of God’s inspired words.
And so that’s where we find ourselves in our Second Reading for this morning. At the very beginning of at the book of Revelation, we’re at the very end of the time period in which the New Testament was written. Revelation and John’s letters are likely among the last of the New Testament books to be written and sent out, in the late 80s or early 90s AD.
John is likely the only one of the original 12 disciples still alive at this time. He’s an old man who has spent his entire life devoted to preaching the good news about Jesus. And when he writes down these amazing visions, he’s paying the price for that work. As far as we know, he was not executed for his work like so many other of the apostles. But he was exiled on an island, just west of modern-day Turkey. John says that he was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.
At this time, the Christian church was in rough shape. From both problems internal and external, Christians throughout the world were going trough hardships. Persecutions and false doctrines threatened people’s physical and eternal lives. If you read through the seven individual letters sent to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, you get a sense for what the people were going through. John himself had lived through most if not all of his fellow apostles executed for the message they were tasked with proclaiming. There were likely many times that this didn’t feel like the eternally-victorious triumph that Jesus was supposed to be. As John sits in exile, it probably feels far removed from the joy of that first Easter. Honestly, it probably felt pretty far away from the joy we had at our Easter celebration just last week.
Was Jesus really victorious? Is he really all-powerful? Or did everyone get duped? Did they back the wrong horse in this eternally-important race? The book of Revelation is largely Jesus bringing comfort not only to John but also to all of the churches who would receive the accounting of what he saw and heard, you and me included. And in this intro section at the beginning of chapter 1, we have the answer to what is perhaps one of the most important questions to a struggling Christian: who is Jesus, really?
In his vision, John hears Jesus speak, and he turns to look at him, and this is what he sees: When I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands, and among the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was clothed with a robe that reached to his feet, and around his chest he wore a gold sash. His head and his hair were white, like white wool or like snow. His eyes were like blazing flames. His feet were like polished bronze being refined in a furnace. His voice was like the roar of many waters. He held seven stars in his right hand. A sharp two-edged sword was coming out of his mouth. His face was shining as the sun shines in all its brightness. I wonder, as I read these words, did John even recognize Jesus? Did he look anything like the teacher who loved him so dearly during his earthly ministry? Maybe there was a reminder of Jesus’ transfiguration in this vision, but what John describes here seems to be well beyond the change in appearance the Gospels describe on that hilltop so many years before.
We won’t spend a ton of time this morning going through Revelation interpretation, save for this point: the seven lampstands are symbols of the seven churches to which John is writing. So when Jesus is “among the lampstands,” that is a picturesque way of showing that Jesus was at the moment with his people. Jesus wasn’t far away in some remote part of the universe. He had not ascended and then forgotten about the people he left on earth. Despite what it may have felt like at times, Jesus is there among his people, with them in all of their trials and adversities. He was supporting them—not necessarily making life easy, but make it possible to navigate the difficulties of the crosses they were bearing.
And what a powerful vision of his ability to do so! John began this section by giving us this brief quote and description of Jesus: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, the one who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty. And in what he sees, Jesus looks the part doesn’t he? You can feel John struggling to come up with words to communicate what he’s seeing. But all the talk of gleaming white, flames, and glowing hot metal really conveys the brightness and power of our Savior. He looks nothing like Jesus did during his earthly ministry, during that time of humiliation. No, he looks every part the Almighty God that he always was.
And whether John recognizes Jesus or not, you can see his reaction to this divine vision: When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. We have this over and over again in Scripture: someone is given even the slightest glimpse of God’s glory, or even the glory of one of his messengers, the angels, and they fall down, terrified. Sinners can’t be the presence of perfection, and more to that, sinners can’t be in the presence of the holy God. And so John might figure here that is life is forfeit.
But here we see the wild looking, glowing guy act very much like the Jesus we know from the Gospels: He placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last—the Living One. I was dead and, see, I am alive forever and ever! I also hold the keys of death and hell.” You can almost hear Jesus using the same voice that he did with Mary Magdalene in the garden when she was so distraught that someone had stolen his body that she mistook the resurrected Jesus for the gardener, until he said her name. Or for Thomas, as he calmly, lovingly, but also directly focused doubts on the reality that stood before him.
But whether it’s Mary, Thomas, or John here in Revelation, Jesus’ patient, kind, loving goal is the same: he wants people to see who he really is. He isn’t a weak pitiful man that someone might mistake him for at the cross. He isn’t an angry, vengeful God that some might mistake him for here in Revelation’s opening vision. No, he is the God-man who loves you. He is the God-man who died for you. He is the God-man who was raised to life for you.
How often do you feel like Thomas, plagued with doubts about God’s ability to follow though on the promises he’s made? Is he really going to work good from hardship and difficulty? Is he really going to not give us more than we can bear, and provide a way our of testing and temptation?
How often do you feel like Mary, overwhelmed with grief and heartache? How many days do you view the world through tears, without being able to recognize God’s presence, even if he stood right in front of you? How often do those heartaches feel totally out of your control to do anything about at all?
How often do you feel like John and those other first-century Christians could have felt, that Jesus had left them all alone. As the world around us seems to come crashing down, as we seem to struggle with difficulties and hardships for our faith rather than find comfort, how often do you find yourself wondering if this is all worth it? How often do the physical trials of this world lead you to lose track of the eternal blessings to come?
Whether you feel like Thomas, Mary, or John and the other first-century Christians, see Jesus here in all of his power, all of his victory, but also in all of his love and care for you. He is the one who holds the keys to death and hell because his death and resurrection have completely defeated both. You are free from their clutches because Jesus won the day for you. He is not an angry God, or an absent God, or a powerless God. He is the God who has set you free for eternity. He’s the God that loves you with an eternal love. He is the God whom you and I are privileged and honored to serve. He is the God who walks among the lampstands, with Gloria Dei, Belmont, CA being one of the many he tends to.
This life is going to be filled with grief and difficulty. Jesus never, ever promised an easy road for those who trust in him. In fact, just the opposite. He promised a life where we will have to bear crosses and suffer for our faith. But, my brothers and sisters, through all of it, don’t lose track of what is real and in front of you. Easter points us not to the here-and-now, but to what is to come, the blessings that God has in store for us in eternal life. Our sins no longer mean hell; Jesus’ sacrifice and victory mean heaven for you and all who trust in him. Though our hearts may waver, Jesus is ever patient, ever loving, ever caring.
Today, Jesus gives us a quick look behind the mask it feels like he wears to reassure us and comfort us. See Jesus as he really is, not with your physical eyes, but with the eyes of faith. Because, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Christ is risen; he is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
