The Ultimate Judge Revealed in Glory

Transcript

GR 1981
The Ultimate Judge Revealed in Glory
10/30/2016
Revelation 1:14-16
Gil Rugh

We’ve begun a study of the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation. So I invite you to turn in your bibles to Revelation chapter 1. The Bible begins with the Book of Genesis and ends with the Book of Revelation and it’s the Book of Revelation that shows how God fulfills what He planned at the beginning of creation as recorded in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, a book that is rich. It’s written for the churches and for their understanding. So often the Book of Revelation is viewed as a book that is confusing and closed to our understanding but the very title of the book means an uncovering. Revelation chapter 1 said, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, things which must soon take place.” Now if it is an uncovering to show, to reveal stuff, to make known to us information, it would make no sense to say God went on to speak in such a confused way that we really are not sure what He said. When God intends to disclose something and make it known, He can make it clear and we have looked into some of the matters associated with that. The things of God are closed to those who do not know Him. His Spirit is the One in the life of each believer in Jesus Christ who enables our understanding but as we saw in 1 Corinthians the person without the Spirit is not able to really know and understand the things of God.

So we come to the Book of Revelation as God’s children, those who have recognized their sin, been loosed from their sin, who are the objects of His love, to learn more of Him and His purposes for our future. (Rev. 1:5) “This comes from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” Now note “To Him who loves us” present tense. He is loving us and “released us” this is what we would view as a past tense, aorist tense. That is what He has done for us by His blood—“He released us from our sins by His blood--” It took His death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, which is death, so that we could be set free from the bondage and slavery to sin and now live as the objects of His ongoing love for us. Remarkable what God has done.

Verse 7 gave the theme of the book. “He is coming in the clouds, every eye will see Him, those who pierced Him will see Him;” the Jews all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” And the Book of Revelation is moving us through the events that will culminate in chapter 19 with the return of Jesus Christ visibly from heaven to destroy His enemies and set up His kingdom which will be talked about in chapters 20, 21 and 22. Tremendous book. It begins with a revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ so that begins with verse 9 and is going to continue down through the rest of the chapter. You have the unveiling of Jesus Christ. Then with chapters 2 and 3 specific letters will be addressed to each of seven churches where Christ the Judge of His churches gives His evaluation. Then in chapters 4 and 5 we will be transferred to scenes in heaven whereas we’ll see the church will be during the rest of the Book of Revelation up until chapter 19. From chapters 6 to 19 we have a seven year period of trouble and turmoil where God’s wrath is poured out on an unbelieving world and where He prepares the nation Israel for their Messiahs coming. Chapter 19 you have the return of the Lord to earth. Chapter 20 you have the establishing of His kingdom. The first phase of which is a thousand years after which you have the final judgment of unbelievers and their sentencing to an eternal hell and the moving into the eternal phase of the kingdom in chapters 21 and 22; so the book flows in order.

We noted the importance of the revelation, not only the additional information it gives us but it puts in order prophetic material that had been revealed before but the order that it would take place had not been clarified. It is the Book of Revelation that gives a sequential order to coming prophetic events so that is a great help to us as well.

John is on a remote rocky island off in the Aegean Sea off the coast from Ephesus which the Romans used to imprison people. They had mines there and they would put them to work. John is there because of the faithfulness of His testimony for Jesus Christ. Tradition says he was exiled there by the Roman Emperor Domitian and it’s about 95 A.D. when he writes the Book of Revelation. John is an elderly man by this time. It’s been over sixty years since Christ walked the earth and was crucified. He ascended to heaven in Acts chapter one. That’s the last John would have seen Him until this revelation now on the island of Patmos so John would be probably somewhere around ninety years of age; eighty-five to ninety plus in that age range.

He’s in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and this is going to be something where he’s going to be transported in his spirit and is going to be given a vision. The first vision is that of the resurrected glorified Christ. Verse 10 said, we’ve looked into some of these verses, “he heard a voice behind him like the sound of a trumpet,” The first thing is this voice and the sound of a trumpet indicating it is something that calls for his attention; it has authority it has power—like you use a trumpet to call people’s attention. That’s what this voice is like and the voice gives him instruction (v.11) to “write down in a book or a scroll what you see,” So it’s going to be given to John visually and his responsibility is to record it and he is recording it not just for posterity but it is addressed to seven specific historical churches of the time. These are on the mainland. John is on the island off the coast of Asia Minor.

These seven churches are mentioned beginning with Ephesus in verse 11 and we noted they form something of a semi-circle oval circular kind of pattern. This will be the pattern that the postal service would have taken in John’s day going from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum round--so each of these churches have a letter addressed to them. We talk more about that when we begin chapter 2. So this is for the benefit of the churches and we looked and the Book of Revelation ends with that reminder that the churches are to pay attention to what was written. There is blessing for taking heed to what is written here and living in light of it.

In verse 12 John has the natural response. He hears this voice behind him so powerful and awesome giving him instruction. “He turns around to see the voice that was speaking. And I turned and saw seven golden lampstands;” and we have looked at this. What they symbolize, represent, we don’t have to sort out because down in verse 20 we are told at the end of the verse. “The seven lampstands are the seven churches.” So he sees seven golden lampstands each lampstand representing a church. And we’ve looked back into the Old Testament and some of the New Testament. The churches are to be lights in the midst of the darkness of an unbelieving world and this goes back to the Old Testament tabernacle in which there was the seven branched menorah, as we know it, standing outside the Holy of Holies. And Israel was God’s light in the Old Testament but here, now it refers to the churches and each church has a lampstand.

In the middle of the lampstands and this is material we’ve covered but I’m refreshing, reminding your pure minds that never wander. (v.13) “In the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man,” and this is a reference to Christ. The Son of man drawing from Daniel’s prophecies chapter 7 and the vision that Daniel got of Christ coming to receive the kingdom from the Father. He is referred to as the Son of man. We noted this is Christ’s favorite title for Himself during His earthly ministry. He uses it of Himself over eighty times in the gospels. Son of man who is truly a human man as truly eternal God. As Colossians 2:9 said, “All the fullness of Deity dwells in Him in bodily form,” He’s in the middle of the lampstands so they form something of a circle and “in the middle of them stands the Son of man. He’s clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, girded across His chest with a golden sash.” He is the One who will have full and complete knowledge of each of His churches and we noted He doesn’t talk about the church He talks about the churches; each individual one. He’s evaluating each church--we the church in Lincoln at Indian Hills being evaluated by Him. That’s what these seven churches are taken for--their historical churches but the seven are chosen. We’ll talk about them for something of the completion of what is going on and what will be addressed to the churches down through history. A reminder, the evaluation of the church each individual local church is done by the head of the church, the Lord of the church Jesus Christ and He is here.

He’s dressed in this robe with a golden sash or girdle about the loins. We noted--went back--this was the dress of the high priest in the Old Testament and remember what his job was? To be sure that the lampstand in the tabernacle later the temple was burning brightly as it should. The oil needed to be constantly replenished in the oil lamp, the wick had to be trimmed so it kept burning. The lampstand had to be exactly as it was intended to be. Christ is here what, in His priestly garment and the authority that is His now as the High priest after the order of Melchizedeck? He is evaluating the condition of the lampstands and what changes, corrections, adjustments must be made and what He approves in each one. So that brings us to where we left off in this description.

He picks up in verse 14 still describing Him now. “His head and His hair were white like wool, like snow;” and we went back to Daniel chapter 7 so we won’t go back there right now. If you weren’t here or you forgot, you can refresh your mind later but in Daniel chapter 7 after the empires of the world have come and gone, you have the establishing of the Kingdom of Christ. That’s the chapter where I said the Son of man comes before the Throne of His Father to receive the kingdom. And the Father there is described in a similar way. His hair white like snow or wool and we noted we wanted to remember that because now it’s Jesus Christ described in that way. It’s not unusual that we should have Jesus Christ described with the same characteristic as God the Father. He is not God the Father; He is God the Son. They are distinct Persons. We have emphasized there are three Persons comprising the one true living God; God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They are not three separate Gods; they are three separate Persons comprising the one true and living God. Now I’m not saying that’s something that our minds can fully comprehend and we have to get used to the fact we are finite beings and will be for all eternity. God will always be infinite and as we remind ourselves we will never exhaust our knowledge of God because He is infinite and we are finite. Jesus Christ is God.

What does the white hair, the white beard…I hate to use a crass example but I saw on TV and they had a picture of all these people in their Halloween costumes and there was one representing Father Time and how does he look? White hair and beard because right to our day what is it supposed to represent? Something endless, something timeless but we go back--where do we find that? We find it rooted here in scripture. It’s the picture of the eternality of God. He’s the God who has always been, always will be. John is the one receiving this revelation. He’s also the one who was used to record what we call the Gospel of John. How does he begin that gospel? “In the beginning was the Word,” talking about Jesus Christ there described as the Word of God. He is the one who reveals God like our words reveal us. Our words reveal the secret things. He reveals God in a way He otherwise could not be known. He’s the Word of God. It says, “In the beginning was the Word,” or you could translate that tense there, “In the beginning the Word already was,” In other words when you get to the beginning as we can know it Jesus Christ was already there because He is the Creator as John goes on in his gospel. So (Gen.1:1) “In the beginning God created the heavens, and the earth.” And when you get to that beginning, Jesus Christ already was because He’s been in eternity past. So that’s the picture of the flowing white hair. It’s white as wool, white like snow picturing He is the eternal God.

(v.14) “His eyes were like a flame of fire.” This is a characteristic of revelations given of heavenly beings in the Old Testament; fire is associated with them. In the Book of Daniel chapter 10:6a he confronts the heavenly personage and he had “eyes like flaming torches,” It portrays that supernatural intelligence, that searching judgment, that which is able to penetrate and evaluate and sort out. God is the Judge. He is the awesome Judge of all men. It’s a purifying judgment, it is a penetrating judgment. You know important here… remember how John is known in the gospel of John (Jn.12:23b); the disciple “whom Jesus loved.” Jesus had 12 disciples during His earthly ministry that formed that inner core. Within that inner core there were three, Peter, James and John. Within that inner core of three there was one; John. That last supper remember he reclined in the position closest to Christ. Now here after sixty plus years, he sees Christ and it’s an awesome picture.

I say this because sometimes as I’ve stressed we as believers lower our view of God and of Christ and He becomes something like just a good buddy, a good friend and He is a friend in one sense. He is close to us, He is the one loving us as we saw at the end of (Rev. 1:5) but we must never lose perspective. He is God, we are not. He is always to be revered, respected and in that context feared. Something like we might say you as a parent have a relationship with your child. Some parents try hard to be their child’s best friend. That’s not what you are; you are the parent and so you keep what? You want to demonstrate your love for your child, your understanding all of that but they must never lose sight of the fact you are the parent, they are the child. You cannot reduce those roles, you cannot equate those roles. He is God so He appears to John and you would think after sixty some years this just might be a hugging sit down--John’s had a hard life. His brother James was beheaded, his friend Peter was crucified. He’s a prisoner on the island of Patmos. It has not been an easy sixty years since Christ left but when Christ appears, He appears in the glory that is His as the resurrected Son of God, Son of man. He is God, He is man. There is an awesomeness in this.

“His eyes were like a flame of fire.” (Rev.1:14) This pictures judgment and this whole revelation of Christ is a focus on judgment and you know where judgment begins? “At the house of God;” (1 Pet. 4:17b) Where will judgment begin in the Book of Revelation? In chapter 2, in chapter 3 with what? The churches. We don’t want to lose perspective. We are secure in Christ, our eternal destiny is settled but we have an awesome judgment ahead of us.

I want to take a moment and look at some passages on judgment. We’ll do it all together here so then we can look at the different emphasis on judgment in the description of Christ and not keep breaking it up and looking at the other passages. As noted there are hundreds of illusions to the Old Testament in the Book of Revelation. We just can’t take them all in. That’s what helps us understand the Book of Revelation so we’ll try to take enough of those that will clarify some of the symbolism that is used.

Come back to the Book of Jeremiah chapter 17. This is the only passage I am going to take on judgement from the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophets are about judgment. Anytime you come to a prophetic book or a prophet in the Old Testament and their history in the prophetic books it’s a sign God wants to talk to them about judgment. The presence of a prophet in Israel was an indication God was not pleased and they came to announce judgment. (Jer.17:9) “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” The point he is making is there is no human being who really understands and knows the depths of depravity of the human heart. That is a bottomless pit of iniquity. (v.10). “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” There’s only one who knows the innermost recesses of our hearts who can do a factual pure judgment and that is the One with the eyes like flames of fire. They penetrate, sort out everything that’s there, evaluate as we’ll see the things that we do which come from our heart. (Mark 7:21). Jesus said, “It is out of the heart that proceeds all sorts of evil,” sinful behaviors but we never plumb the depths of the potential of wickedness in those hearts. That’s why only God can bring redemption because man tries to clean up the outside as Christ said to the religious people of His day. “You clean up the outside but the inside is full of corruption.” I can stop this sin or that sin but I can’t deal with the fountain, the source of that depravity and yet out of that depraved heart comes sinful pride that I am rather righteous. God searches the heart.

That’s what He is saying; He is the Evaluator. That’s why in scripture we are going to look at some passages. There are certain things God reserves for Himself. I shared with some of the men I’m reading one of the Puritans this past week and he made the point how we must be careful to make a distinction between our responsibilities to God and the prerogatives that God reserves for Himself. We get into all kinds of trouble when we try to assume to ourselves the prerogatives that God reserves for Himself and the area of ultimate judgment comes into this. There are some things that He has delegated to us in judging, in evaluating. Those we are responsible to carry out but the judging of the heart and the motives in the final evaluation God reserves to Himself.

So come over to the Gospel of John chapter 5. We see in all judgment one of the Persons of the Godhead are delegated that responsibility. God the Father won’t do the judging, God the Holy Spirit will not do the judging but God the Son will do the judging. We can’t read the whole context but in (John 5:22) ‘For’ and you can see we are in the middle of a thought here with this preposition beginning the verse. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, (v.23.) so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (v.24.). “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death to life.” Now be careful. That does not mean we as believers will never experience a kind of judgment but the judgment of our eternal destiny has taken place. The penalty for our sin which involves an eternity in hell has been wiped out. That is no longer a potential so we don’t come into judgment regarding our eternal destiny. That’s what He is talking about. The one who believes in Me has eternal life so he does not come into judgment regarding his eternal destiny because for those who don’t believe in Him their eternal destiny is eternal death; the second death as we will see (Rev.20:10b) “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, eternal hell.

Come down to (John 5:27). “He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.” There’s that title which we see in Revelation 1. He is fit to be judge--how so? Well God obviously could judge. God the Father could but He has given all judgment over to the One who is not only God but also fully man. You understand that Jesus Christ when He was born into the human race did not become two persons in one body. Again, in a way that we cannot understand, He was fully God and fully man and He will be now forever. So how does John see Him in Revelation chapter 1? “Son of man” and that’s how Christ referred to Himself on earth because that’s what was unique to Him. He had eternally been God but He had a beginning as man when He took to Himself humanity but He will be man forever. So man will be judged by one who is man, who went through all the testing’s and trials that a human being does as (Hebrews 4:15b) tells us, “yet He never sinned.” So you can’t say, “well you know He wouldn’t know what I have had to go through.” He was a man, He was tested in everything yet He never sinned. So He is the One of the three Persons of the triune God who will exercise all judgment so we can say no matter who you are, where you are you will someday be judged by Jesus Christ. Now here believers in Jesus Christ won’t be judged at the judgment for eternal destiny.

At the Great White Throne judgment when we get to it in Revelation chapter 20 there won’t be any believers being judged there--that is settling eternal destiny but there are other judgments that will come up. Come over to Romans chapter 12 and it’s the context giving instructions to believers in verse 14. “Bless those who persecute; bless and don’t curse.” (v.15.) “Rejoice with those who rejoice,” These instructions (v.17.) “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” (v.19.) “Never take your own revenge, beloved,” Why? “but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE,” See there is a prerogative that God reserves for Himself. I better not try to take it to myself. As a believer I understand that; right? I am one who wants to live in obedience to the word. Never take your own revenge. You don’t know what they did. They deserve… wait, wait, wait. “Never take your own revenge, beloved.” This is said to those that He loves. (v.19). “Leave room for the wrath of God for it is written.” So we go back to the Old Testament in the Book of Proverbs, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, say’s the Lord” so you see judgment will come. So certain judgment I am not involved in and here I don’t take my own vengeance. It’s not saying you weren’t wronged severely. I mean John’s brother James was beheaded by a vile man, Herod. John couldn’t spend his life seeking revenge for the wretched deed done to his brother. He had to leave that with the Lord. That’s the judgment.

Come over to chapter 14 of Romans. Look at verse 10. “But why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?” Now note this. We’re talking to believers now. “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” (v.11). “For it is written,” here we go back; this is not new material. We go back to the Old Testament. “AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.” (V.12). “So then” and here is the apostle Paul writing to believers in the church at Rome. “…each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” So there are different judgments in scripture--we’ll be talking about this as we move into the Book of Revelation, through it. We’ve done it before but we will lay them out again but everyone is going to stand before Jesus Christ for their judgment. Not every judgment is the same kind of judgment but make no mistake you will stand personally, individually before the Throne of Jesus Christ to be evaluated and judged in one way or another. Ultimately it will be either for your eternal destiny or for the reward for your faithfulness.

Come over to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. What’s required of those who are God’s servants is faithfulness. Paul is being criticized and evaluated and they’re judging his motives. Believers in the church at Corinth, they’ve crossed the line. Paul says in (v.3). “But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or any human court;” Why? “I don’t even examine myself.” Does that mean don’t worry about what you do, don’t give it a thought? Of course not. What’s he say? (v.4.) “I am conscious of nothing against myself,” What he is saying is I’m not the ultimate judge of even me, much less you. I know more about what’s going on in me than anybody else. You know more about what is going on in you than anyone else. You’re the only one who knows what you’re thinking about right now. The person sitting next to you can’t know so that’s true. Paul says, “you’re evaluation and judgment of me is not something that I’m concerned about. I can’t even ultimately judge myself. Now I have a clear conscience. I believe I’ve done what God would have me do and am doing it.” (v.4b). “Yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.”

So ultimately--well this is a pretty good sermon. I’ve worked hard on this and everybody seems to be listening and yes, I think this will get an A-. Well I just lost it because even as I evaluate myself with that, that’s pride and arrogance if I did it to impress people. That’s what God is going to judge not just the action but the motive behind the action. You share the gospel with someone and they got saved but the only reason you shared the gospel with them was because there was somebody with you and you wanted them to think you were spiritual. God in His grace used the gospel you shared to save them but your motivation in sharing the gospel wasn’t the passion and love for their soul and the desire to honor Christ and bring His truth to them. Well God will evaluate the heart. That’s why I can’t ultimately tell my own motives. My heart could be so deceitful. Times I may think like Paul says, my conscience is clear but that doesn’t acquit me. So, what’s He say? (v.5). “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time,” If you can’t even judge accurately and fully yourself how in the world are you going to judge someone else’s motives? Now again there are certain things He says we have to judge in the church. He instructs the Corinthian’s regarding this but we so easily drift across the line and think we have more authority in the judgment.

“Do not go on passing judgement before the time, wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” That’s the judgment God will do in the darkness of the human heart. He’ll judge what’s really there even in us as believers. We’re not yet purified, not perfected. In Christ we stand perfected but it’s not yet been done; we’ve not yet arrived. We all stumble in many ways and then my motives, all of that is going to come out before the throne.

Come over 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In (v.9.) he talks about having as his “ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” We ought to be ambitious Christians in the biblical sense. What is your ambition? My ambition is to please the Lord. That will be my ambition when I am in His presence in glory, that’s my ambition in this life. Why? (v.10.) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Now this is not a judgment for eternal destiny. We will say more about that as we evaluate the future. This is what we refer to because of the word for judgment here; the Bema Seat of Christ. Paul talked about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 where what believers have done will be put to the fire and the dross will be consumed and what is left is what we’re rewarded on.

Sometimes we as believers, and I’ve heard this so many times over the years. You know it doesn’t matter to me, rewards aren’t important--As long as I’m going to heaven it doesn’t matter. When we stand before this judgment seat, I won’t ask for a raise of hands but how many think in your heart, think they’re going to stand there and say, Lord we can skip this, it doesn’t matter to me? I-don’t-think-so. They’re going to find out this is not how it impacts John. We are going to have a certain holy fear--not that I’m going to be sentenced to hell. It’s like if I can reduce it to a trite example when you as a child did something wrong you had a fear of coming before your father but you weren’t afraid he was going to throw you out into the street; that’s not it but there still was a fear.

There were three boys in our family and one perfect girl but we boys would get in, you know, wrestling matches or whatever, be doing stuff and all of a sudden we would hear dad coming. Boy could boys straighten up just like that! He opened the door. What’s going on? Nothing, nothing, nothing. Why? We all had a fear. You know not a fear dad will…and the guiltier we were the more intense our…Paul says this is motivating to me. Paul wasn’t afraid he was going to be sentenced to hell but note verse 11. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord,” We are never to lose that. A fear of being displeasing to Him, a fear of dishonoring Him, a fear of not pleasing Him. Some of the churches have lost that fear. We are going to see that when we get into chapters 2 and 3. They just have settled down. We are going to read these churches and we are going to say; what in the world is going on there? You know what? It is why we start out with chapter 1 in the Book of Revelation. That’s why it’s put there and passed down for two thousand years to us and other local churches. We need to know the fear of the Lord and have it shape our conduct because He is evaluating us. He’s not far away. He is evaluating this local church, other local churches. Are they what they need to be; the candlestick in the right shape? One other passage and then we have to come back to Revelation; go to James chapter 4. We’ve belabored the point but we started out confronting Christ as Judge and then we’ll move into the specifics of the churches. (James 4:10.) This is a strong chapter and it has some rebukes he gives here. We are to “humble ourselves in the presence of God.” (v.11). “Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you’re a judge of the law, you are not doer of the law but a judge of it.” Now note this. (v.12). “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; who are you to judge your neighbor?” Again if there is sin there’s instruction for us in the family to deal with sin but we need to be very careful. We easily, even as the redeemed, can become self-righteous and assume to ourselves the prerogative of judging what is not our prerogative? It is God’s prerogative. I’m always on safe ground when I am doing what He tells me to do but if I am doing something and it’s not what He’s told me to do then I will be in trouble.

Come back to Revelation chapter 1. You know I was the oldest brother and of course perfection deteriorates with each one but being the oldest there were times I thought I could exercise the judgment and punishment on my younger sinful brothers but you know what? My dad made clear that was not my responsibility that was not delegated to me that was not given over to me. Similar kind of picture. So here we are back in Revelation chapter 1:14b. “His eyes were like a flame of fire.” (v.15.) “His feet were like burnished bronze, as made to glow in a furnace,”-- the eyes, the burnished bronze, the fiery eyes, the glowing bronze feet. Remember in the Old Testament, Exodus 27 the brazen altar-- it’s a place of judgment on sin used for the sacrifice. These feet symbolize His judgment--this glowing, the fire, the glowing. If you go back and read Ezekiel 1 where there is a revelation of God you see these same pictures of fire and of glowing metal. It’s an awesome picture.

You have to come back to Isaiah 63. You see where this allusion is. He doesn’t directly quote Isaiah 63 but the picture is drawn from (Isaiah 63:1.) “Who is this who comes from Edom, with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, this One who is majestic in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength?” You see even the apparel of Christ described; there is something majestic and awesome and striking. His strength came out in His voice like the trumpet. “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Then they questioned Him, (v.2.) “Why is Your apparel red, Your garments like the one who treads the wine press?” (v.3.) “I have trodden the wine trough alone…I trod them in My anger and trampled them in My wrath; their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, stained all My raiment.” (v.4.) “The day of vengeance was in My heart,”

A picture of glowing bronze feet that connects with what? The picture of the wine press. That will come out in Revelation 19 at Armageddon. Some of you have been to the Middle East or seen it on TV. They had a place where they put the grapes in the vat and in those days then they would bind up their robe and they go around and stamp on the grapes and there’s a little trough that runs out and the juice runs out. This is the picture of Christ coming in judgment and just crushing His enemies under His feet so that their blood is splashing up on Him and the picture is of fierce, awesome destructive judgment; the bronze feet trampling and crushing His enemies. When you get to Revelation 19:15, we won’t turn there, we’ll see that.

Come back to Revelation 1. “His voice was like the sound of many waters.” at the end of (v.15.) That’s the same point as at the end of (v.10.) Now if you have been to the ocean and you’re there at certain times the waves come crashing in and there is a literal roar and there is something about the fullness and volume of it. It’s not just a loud sound it’s captivating, awesome…so it’s saying the same thing about the authority and power of the One speaking. Everyone will listen and there will be nobody talking back. Even John with the intimacy of his relationship with Christ will be so overwhelmed that when we get to (v.17. he’s going to fall over “like a dead man.” He’s not standing here saying, Wow this is great--the impact on Him is overwhelming--so the sound of many waters. (v.16.) “In His right hand He held seven stars, out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.” Just highlight this. This is where we will pick up next time--in His right hand, seven stars. The right hand symbolizes the place of power; authority.

In (John 10:28) it was used as a point of protection for those who belonged to Him. No one can take them out of His hand but here it is more a picture of authority and power and control; the right hand picturing strength and might. I saw in His right hand seven stars, what are the seven stars? Down in (v.20.), the last part of the verse. “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,” We’ll talk about this probably in our next study. Now a Greek word for angels is aggelos. We’ve just transliterated it over into English; aggelos, angels. The word basically means messengers. Throughout the Book of Revelation, sixty some-times it refers to the spiritual angels. I think here it probably refers to human messengers but we’ll say more about that next time because the Father gave the revelation to the Son, the Son gave it to His angel, the angel gave it to John. Now it’s doubtful that John then gave it back to another angel and then gave it to the churches so I think we have representatives of the churches here but the point is they are in His hand under His control and these messengers are here representing their church--the church at Ephesus, the church at Laodicea, whatever. You have to realize, Jesus Christ is the One who is in authority, who has the power. You know we get focused looking on this level and we’ve got all kinds of things going and we forget this is the ultimate relationship. There’s only one head of the church, there’s only one Lord of the church, there’s only one Lord over each slave. He has the power they are held in His right hand. “Out of His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword;” that’s the word of God. We’ll look at that next time. The passages that relate to this both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The face shining like the sun has background also and significance in the Old and New Testaments and we’ll see something of the glory of God. And in all of this someday we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is.

We will not take on the qualities and attributes of Deity but something of the glory that is revealed. (1 John 3:2d) When we see Him “we shall be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.” What God has promised to His children is glory. Now again we will never have the glory of Deity but we will have the glory of those that the eternal God has perfected to be manifestations of His glory. Wretched, think of the contrast, wretched sinful people deserving of an eternal hell which the majority of the world will ultimately experience and His salvation is so great we are transformed from those so corrupted by sin at the very depths of our being that only an eternal hell would be fit punishment. His salvation is so cleansing, so complete that now we will be able to stand in His presence as (Colossians 1:22) says and be recognized “by Him as holy and blameless” and without spot. It’s amazing so do I fear standing before Christ as Judge? Indeed I do. That fear is a motivation to please Him every day and I’m not saying I do but you ought to be afraid if you’re not a child of God. You will stand before Him to be judged in a more awful way than you can imagine when He will say, “Depart from Me, cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;” (Matthew 25:41) but it’s not necessary. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) How tragic people perish when they could be saved but they choose not to believe.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the revelation You’ve given and Lord it’s a reminder to us the awesome blessing, the greatness of the grace that was bestowed upon us. Not because we were more worthy, more deserving, less sinful but because You are a God of great grace. Lord I pray for those who may be here who have never experienced that saving grace. You brought them today to hear of Your salvation that they might have opportunity to respond in faith, may this be a day of salvation for them. Lord for those of us who experience your cleansing grace may we walk in fear, reverence, in concern to not disobey You but to always please You as we look forward to the time when we will stand to be evaluated as well. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.