Christ In His Glory and Majesty

Transcript

GR 1503
10-12-08
Christ in His Glory and Majesty
Revelation 1:13-16
Gil Rugh


We're in the book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, turn their in your Bibles. You'll note that it is singular, the revelation, singular, of Jesus Christ. The entire book is the revelation. In that there will be a series of visions and so on that John will see, but it is one entity—the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is addressed to the churches, the seven churches in Asia Minor. But these seven churches of John's day that we will look at in detail in chapters 2-3 are selected by Christ because their condition, what He has to say to them will have ongoing importance to His churches down through history to our present day. So that when you get to the end of the book of Revelation in chapter 22 verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. So you have the entire book of Revelation, not just chapters 2-3, but the entire book, all 22 chapters for the benefit of His churches, individual, local churches. We'll have more to say about that when we move into chapters 2-3.

We come to a section, we're going to pick up with verse 12 and following, that present the resurrected Christ in His majesty and glory. And it is a striking scene when you think it's been 65 years or so since John has seen Jesus Christ. He was perhaps the closest to Christ of all the disciples, and yet after this extended absence you see Christ present Himself before John and it is a picture of majesty and awe that will totally overwhelm John to the point that he will fall down as a dead man before the feet of Jesus. Nothing of the false intimacy or overdone intimacy, you might say—John runs up and hugs Christ and says, it's so good to see you after so long. There is the reminder of who Jesus Christ is. This is the last appearance and the last message of Christ for His churches. And He comes before them in awesome glory and splendor as their Savior and as their judge. And a reminder we must ever keep before us in our relationship to Christ. He is our Savior, He loves us, He is our Lord and there must be that respect, that awe, that honor in all of our dealings with Him. And out attempt sometimes to be casual and at ease, we just want to treat Him like a good friend. We walk up and put our arm around Him and just like two good buddies. But He is God and here the most intimate of the disciples, the one who was privileged to recline at table where his head was at Christ's chest, the position of closest intimacy relationship. Here when he comes before the resurrected Christ he is overwhelmed with awe. So that's the picture coming before us.

It's the same picture and same result that Isaiah had, not of the resurrected Christ but Christ in His preincarnate glory in Isaiah 6. And what did Isaiah say? Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips, I dwell among people of unclean ........... I mean, to be in the presence of the living God is overwhelming. In Ezekiel 1 Ezekiel is given a vision of the glory of God, and it, too, is striking and overwhelming in its splendor. These great servants of God, and now we have the resurrected Christ appearing to John and addressing His churches for the final time.

We'll pick up at verse 12 and as we've noted, what is developed here in the symbolism will find its basis back in the Old Testament scriptures. John heard a voice behind him, a voice with majesty and power. It was like a loud trumpet, verse 10. It instructed him to write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, then the seven churches are mentioned. And as you might expect, John turns to see the One that is speaking with him. So verse 12, then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of the lampstands I saw One like the Son of Man, clothed with a robe reaching to the feet and girded across His chest with a golden sash.

I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. In other words, the person who was speaking. And he saw seven golden lampstands. And we noted the lampstand here, King James has candlestick, was just a stand on which an oil lamp could be set. They would lay the wick in the oil and you light the wick and that provided light. That was the lampstand which holds the light. And they are golden, seven golden lampstands. Down at the end of verse 20, the seven lampstands are the seven churches. So there is a symbolic representation that is explained for us. And for a symbol to have any meaningful significance, there must be a connection between the symbol and what is being symbolized. Here a lampstand is selected and each of the churches is represented by a lampstand. And that fits what the Word of God says about His people being a light in the world in the darkness.

Go back to Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus spoke to this. Look at verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. So you see the picture there, and here again the symbolism. You are the light of the world. And He compares you to a lampstand in a house that is giving off the light. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. So that symbol of believers being a light, functioning like a lampstand which gave light in the darkness. It wasn't intended to be covered, it is intended to be uncovered so its light is given forth.

Come over to John 1, John who was privileged to pen the gospel of John is also writing the book of the Revelation. John 1 is unfolding material concerning Jesus Christ. He was in the beginning, He was God, He was with God, He created everything. Then note verse 4, in Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it, overpower it. There was a man came from God whose name was John, this was John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through Him. John the Baptist was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. So here the light is taken back to Christ. The same way John begins his first epistle. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Here Christ is the light and He brings light to man. And it's in Him, if you will, the light comes and we come to see, understand and know the living God.

Look over in John 12:35, coming to the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, chapter 13 will bring us to the Last Supper. Verse 35, so Jesus said to them, for a little while longer the light is among you. Walk while you have the light so the darkness will not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light believe in the light so that you may become sons of light. And then His light shines in us.

Turn over to Philippians 2. While you turn to Philippians 2 let me read to you what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4:3, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The God who is light. You see the light of the gospel. Satan's desire is to keep men and women in spiritual darkness, to try as best he can to keep the light of the gospel from shining in. Ties with what we talked about in our study in 2 Timothy, to try to keep us from sharing the gospel, if you will, turning on the light so that people might respond to the light and be saved.

In Philippians 2:15. Verse 14, do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life. Remember in Him was life and the life was the light. And here now we are lights in the world, holding fast the word of life. Life and light go together. The light enables us to see, to know, to understand the things of God. Those in darkness know nothing of God, they don't have life, they don't have light. We are lights in the world. And we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, but we are to shine, giving off the knowledge of Jesus Christ in every place, so that the light of the gospel might shine so that they might, by God's grace, see and believe.

So when you come to Revelation 1 and the seven churches are represented, each one, by a lampstand, you say that symbol is clear. These are to be centers of light in the darkness, giving off the knowledge of Jesus Christ, giving forth the Word of God, conducting themselves in the world as God's children, living lives of holiness, bringing light in the darkness. Seven golden lampstands in verse 12.

In the middle of the lampstands, verse 13. Now remember the lampstands here representing the churches and the churches as they are mentioned in verse 11 and as we'll move through them in chapters 2-3 were arranged according to basically the postal route. And these were the postal centers in Asia Minor, places where the letters would be delivered and from which they could then be transported to other places. And you've looked on maps and it's an irregular circle, squished in and so on. But here in the midst of these seven golden candlesticks, in the middle I saw One like the Son of Man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across His chest with a golden sash. So here you have in the midst of these seven candlesticks standing One who is like a Son of Man. Here we go back to Daniel. Remember many, many references to the Old Testament, but the book of Daniel has the most references.

So go back to Daniel 7. Earlier this evening I read from Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 repeats this same material from Daniel 2. And we'll get more into that as we progress into the book of the Revelation. But you come down to verse 8, while I was contemplating the horns, behold another horn, a little one came up among them, among the ten horns. The end of verse 7, ten horns. The image in chapter 2 had ten toes, remember. And we are at the final form of world government here, western world has been joined together, the revived Roman Empire as we refer to it, the ten-nation confederacy. It has the strength of iron and the brittleness of clay. Here it is symbolized by ten horns. And then another horn, a little horn, comes up among the ten, replaced three and becomes the dominant figure. And he really will be the last form, the world dictatorship under the antichrist as we'll see in Revelation as well. Now at this time, verse 9, I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took His seat. We have an awesome description here. The end of verse 10, thousands upon thousands were attending Him, myriads upon myriads standing before Him. The court sat, the books were opened. Then you revert back to what is going on in the world scene, earthly scene in verses 11-12. Then verse 13, I kept looking in the night visions and behold in the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming. And there is our expression, Son of Man. It's referring to the coming of Christ, and you'll note here, He comes to the Ancient of Days, He comes with the clouds of heaven, He is presented before Him. To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom. And it is an everlasting dominion, it is a kingdom which will not be destroyed. That's Christ coming to take possession of creation and to rule and to reign.

Now here this title Son of Man. We know we're referring to Christ. Christ applies this to Himself during His earthly ministry. Come over to the New Testament to the Mark 13. The title Son of Man was Christ's favorite way to refer to Himself. Over 80 times in the gospels we have Him referring to Himself during His earthly ministry as Son of Man, or being referred to as the Son of Man. It was a Messianic title recognized because of Daniel 7 as a title of Messiah. It identifies Him with man. Here is this awesome scene of glory before the Father's throne with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of angels in attendance. And you have One like a Son of Man. A man, a human coming before the throne to take possession of the eternal kingdom of God. What a remarkable vision and picture that will come to fruition when the Son of God stepped from glory and was born into the human race and became a Son of Man, a human being. And all the fullness of deity dwelt in Him in bodily form. And we read in Mark 13:26, then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Now we saw Him in Daniel's vision of future events. Now here Christ unfolds what will take place and He will return, the Son of Man. That's a Messianic title, it identifies Him as the Messiah who will come to take possession of the kingdom, God's kingdom when it is established on earth, be ruled over by the Son of God who is the Son of Man, the God/Man. Remarkable.

Often this title, Son of Man, is used in the context of Him functioning as judge, which becomes significant. In the book of Revelation He is the Messiah who will take possession of the kingdom which is His and establish it on the earth. He is also the One who will bring judgment. Turn over to John 5:22, not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son so that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. Jump down to verse 27, and He gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is Son of Man. So the judgment of man will be carried out by a Man, One who is not just Man but is God. The emphasis is on His humanity and God the Father who never took to Himself humanity has committed the judgment of mankind to One who did take to Himself humanity and was tested in all areas like we are, yet not including sin, as Hebrews tells us.

Come over to Acts 17:30, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. So it is the sovereign purpose of God that all will be judged by the One who is Himself Man, the Son of Man. The emphasis again on Him being a Man. He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man. Remarkable. How could a man ever have the brilliance and the wisdom and the knowledge to judge all? But in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So the awesome plan of God.

Come back to Revelation 1. He is in the middle of the lampstands and He is there evaluating His churches. That is His position as He is in the middle. He can see them all. He will be evaluating each one individually, giving commendation, giving condemnation, giving words of encouragement, if you will. And giving words of rebuke, words of warning. So the description continues on, now. Here He is in the midst of the churches. He is Son of Man. How is He described for us?

Well first He is clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and He is girded across the chest with a golden sash, the King James says a golden girdle, I believe. The binding entity, a sash, material across the chest. Different ones worn in different places, depending on your status. Here across the chest identifies Him in a position of majesty and that's one of those things with some of these items of clothing. It is sometimes difficult to determine just what is the prime emphasis because the description would fit more than one thing that is true. For example the description here of having a golden sash or a girdle or a belt worn higher around the upper part of the chest under the armpits, and so on. Golden, the high priest wore such an item, sewn with golden thread and colors of gold in it. You see that in Exodus 28:4, Zechariah 3:4. And so some would take this with the robe down to the feet and the golden sash or girdle depicting His ministry as high priest. And that would fit because here He is with the lampstands and He evaluates the churches. One of the dangers will be that if you are not functioning, He will put out the light of the lampstand. So He is looking at the condition, if you will, of His lampstands. How are they doing? How are they burning? How are they giving off the light, doing what He intends them to do? Well it was part of the function of a high priest to tend to the candlestick in the tabernacle, then the temple. And to be sure that the lamps on it, there that was the 7-branched candlestick. Remember the one candlestand with seven branches coming out, on each of those seven was an oil lamp and the priest had to keep those burning. So that would fit the picture here of Christ being our high priest. And that's not the major thrust but it is behind everything in the book of Revelation because He is the Redeemer. And the reason He can take possession, bring judgment on the rebellious creation and ultimately its redemption is because of His sacrifice. We'll see that in the heavenly scene in Revelation 5 and the Lamb that has been slain. So indeed He can be seen here as high priest.

However there are other descriptions drawn from the Old Testament. If you were wondering where the priest keeps the lampstand, in the opening verses of Leviticus 24 would be one of those places if you want to go and read that on your own. It seems the immediate background for this, though, is probably most directly in the book of Daniel again. So go back to the book of Daniel and we'll go to chapter 10. And Daniel has a striking vision in Daniel 10. I lifted my eyes, verse 5, and looked and behold there was a certain man dressed in linen whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz. And then the rest of the description which we will be picking up in a moment. And there is some discussion because later down in the verse an angel interacts with Daniel and some discussion on verses 5-6, is this a description of a heavenly angel or is this a description of the preincarnate Christ. And then another angel comes into the picture, beginning in verse 10. If it's an angel, it's an angel with heavenly glory, which again would be no problem because these beings would serve in the very presence of God, have a glory associated with them because of the position they serve—before the throne of the God of glory. But again I think there is a reason to look and say in light of the description in Revelation 1 this may well have been the preincarnate Christ. But the description in Revelation 1 draws several points from Daniel 10. So I think the immediate connection is to Daniel 10 and the heavenly person that Daniel saw in his vision there. The high priest's garments were for beauty and glory, Exodus 28 tells us and certainly the description here is of beauty and glory. And I think that fits with what he is saying here.

Back in Revelation 1:14, His head and His hair. We'll be coming back to some of these references because what happens in chapters 2-3, for six of the seven churches John is taken back to one of these descriptions, and he begins the address to that specific church by attaching it to one of these descriptions of Christ from chapter 1. The church at Laodicea is not dealt with that way, but the other six are. So we'll see these again and talk further about them. His head and His hair were white like wool, like snow.

Go back to Daniel 7, and remember Daniel is told to seal up his revelation, but the book of Revelation is to remain unsealed because you couldn't understand Daniel until the revelation gets complete as it is given now through John and that helps put things together. But note the description of God the Father in verse 9. I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. So that's where that description comes from. You say, well there it was God the Father, Jesus Christ is not God the Father. No, He is God the Son, but He is God. Remember John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He is with God and He was God. Separate persons but one God. And so it is not surprising that Jesus Christ who is God would be described in the same way as God the Father, because He has the same characteristics. And the white hair depicts His eternality. He is called the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9. The Ancient of Days took His seat. Interestingly, we sometimes have thought we won't see God the Father in heaven because He is a Spirit, but we'll just see God the Son. But Daniel saw God the Father on His throne. We'll see that in the book of Revelation as well. So I take it when we get to glory we will see Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And here Daniel in his vision sees the Ancient of Days. Again, depicting Him as the eternal God. He has always been, His eternal preexistence. As the Father sits enthroned He is the One who has always been. Now you see that same description of Christ with the white hair. His head and His hair are white like wool, like snow. The hair of the head of the Ancient of Days like pure wool. You have His eternality, the sovereign eternal God here.

His eyes are like a flame of fire in verse 14, eyes like a flame of fire. Back in Daniel 7:9, the throne of the Ancient of Days was ablaze with flames. Come over to Daniel 10, the vision we saw. Verse 6, the man who was girded with the golden sash, the golden belt. Verse 6, his body was like a beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches. Same description. His eyes were like a flame of fire, like flaming torches. He is of supernatural intelligence and His judgment will be searching, picturing a fire, the refining fire. Remember believers, their works will be put to the fire. The churches are about to come under the fiery examination of the Lord of the church. And they come under His judgment as He evaluates them and brings them to account for their service for Him.

This same description will be given of Christ when we get over to Revelation 2:18 when you start the letter to the church at Thyatira. The Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire. And then the description will be repeated over in Revelation 19:12. And He is the coming judge, He will be exercising .......... Here we see Him in the midst of the churches with His fiery gaze. Do you think this is the last we're going to see of Him? We'd say, He is just going to put His arm around us and it's just going to be lovey-dovey and huggy-huggy. But you understand He is our Lord. This is not a game. He doesn't say this is the last time I'm going to be appearing to you so I don't want it to be a negative time. I mean, this is an awesome scene. Here is John and this is how Christ presents Himself to him. And He is standing in the midst of His churches. Now we don't say He has those soft brown eyes that just radiated love. His eyes were a flame of fire, they'll bring burning, purifying judgment as He examines and passes judgment.

Continuing on that theme, the next description. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace. And this connects to the eyes. And back to the church at Thyatira these two will be put together in the address to that church—the burning eyes and the burning bronze feet. And the symbolism here is of judgment. Bronze, the brazen altar in the Old Testament with the tabernacle and then the temple, the place of judgment, Exodus 38. The feet are burning. Why? It's a picture that is picked up back in Isaiah 63. This is the picture of the Messiah coming, the Second Coming of Christ. 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. It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why is your apparel red, your garments like the one who treads in the winepress. So now the picture is of someone who has gotten into the winepress where they place the grapes. Then you got in and you stomped on the grapes to press out the juice. And then it ran out the spout in the side. And the juice as they did this would come up and stain the garments. Here Christ returning and His garments are red like He had been treading the winepress. What has He done? I have trodden the wine trough alone. From the peoples there was no man with Me, I trod them in My anger, I trampled them in My wrath. Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, I stained all My raiment. For the day of vengeance was in My heart and My year of redemption has come.

Verse 6, I trod down the peoples in My anger and made them drunk in My wrath. I poured out their lifeblood on the earth. It's an awesome picture. When He returns it will be in devastating judgment to destroy His enemies. And the picture is of Him crushing them with His feet, just like grapes, and stained with their blood. You say, that's hardly a warm picture. It's not a warm picture, it is an awesome picture that He is doing it in His wrath. And the God who is capable of perfect love is also capable of perfect wrath. So when we get to Revelation 6-19 we'll see the wrath of God building until we get to chapter 19 and Christ returns and Armageddon. And Isaiah 63 has its fulfillment.

Come over to Revelation 19:15, from His mouth comes a sharp sword, we'll see that in a moment, so that with it He may strike down the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. Now note this, and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. Here you see Him coming to carry out judgment and we just noted those eyes like a flame of fire and you see up in verse12, His eyes are a flame of fire.

And His feet, the burnished bronze, representing the judgment of God. And here they are like in a fiery furnace and they come in devastating, crushing judgment. And all the enemies of God because this last revelation from God through Christ through the angel through John to the churches is primarily about judgment. That's what chapters 6-19 are all about, judgment. But the end of it is glory for the redeemed.

This picture of glowing metal, you have to go back to Ezekiel. You have to appreciate how the book of Revelation and God in these passages condemns so much, drawing from so many places in the scripture. In Ezekiel 1 you have another one of those awesome scenes where Ezekiel is given a vision of God in His glory. Verse 1, the end of the verse, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. If you haven't read that recently you can read through that sometime this week and you'll appreciate the awesome picture here. Look in verse 13, in the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright and lightning was flashing with fire. Down to verse 27, I noticed from the appearance of His loins and upward like glowing metal that looked like fire all around it. The appearance of His loins and downward, something like fire, a radiance around Him. This picture that is associated with fire. I mean, this is a God of purity, a God of judgment that we're dealing with. People don't want to hear that, I don't like that, I want to hear about God's love. But you must know something about God's wrath, about God's judgment. Then you can appreciate the greatness of His love that has reached out to us and the horrible state we were in, in danger of the burning wrath of Almighty God. And yet He reached out and redeemed us. Over in Ezekiel 8:2, then I looked and behold a likeness as the appearance of a man. From his loins and downwards the appearance of fire, form his loins and upwards the appearance of brightness, like the appearance of glowing metal. His appearance associated with fire and His judgment.

So you come back to Revelation 1. His voice, verse 15, was like the sound of many waters. In verse 10 it was like the sound of a trumpet. Here it's like the sound of waters. We live about as far from the ocean as you can get, being in the middle of the country. But some of you have been to the ocean, some of you have lived there, some of you have visited there. And you get there at a certain time and the waves are right, they roar. And you talk about the roaring of the waves. And there is that sense of awesome power, of might, of authority. And that's the picture. His voice was like the sound of many waters, like the roaring of the water. And you think, here is John before this One, the One with whom he had been privileged to minister for three years, to be one of His disciples, part of the inner circle and perhaps the disciple closest to Him among the inner three. And here when He speaks His voice is not soft and gentle and reassuring, it's like the roaring waters, the One with authority and power. I don't want to give you the idea that He is not a God of warmth and love, but we want to keep things in proper perspective. This is how He has chosen to make Himself known to us for the last time. This is the final revelation, there has been nothing new for the last 2000 years since the book of Revelation from Jesus Christ. And so we need to take it seriously.

We'll just go to one passage, back to Daniel 10, the end of verse 6. The one Daniel saw in his vision. And the sound of his words was like the sound of a tumult, the sound of a roaring. That same awesome sound of power. You know like some people would say in an interview after being in a tornado, it was like a freight train. The sound was overwhelming. It's that picture of power and might, authority. In other words you better pay attention. And here He is in the midst of His churches. We don't want to skip over this and think this is for the unbelieving world alone. He is in the midst of His churches now as He is manifest this way. Now by God's grace we are spared the ultimate judgment because He has borne it for us. But you understand this is not a situation where I understand, it's been hard. I understand you didn't do as well as you could but it's okay. That's not the way He comes to deal with His churches and with His people.

In His right hand, back in Revelation 1:16, He held seven stars. Now we know what the seven stars are because down in verse 20 He says the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. We're going to go into that in detail when we get to verse 20 and the identification of the angels and so on. So we'll deal with that when we get there, whether they are actual heavenly angels or they are messengers of the churches and so on. But they are also called stars. We'll look at that along with the angels in verse 20, so we'll hold that. They are in His right hand, and that can picture security. Remember in John 10:28 Jesus said, no one can pluck them out of My hand. But it also represents, and that would be more dominant here in light of the picture, His authority over them. He has absolute authority over the seven stars which are the seven churches and they are under His power, they are accountable to Him. Remember He is our Lord Jesus Christ, the One before whom we bow. Does this have an impact on our worship? On our attitude when we come to Him? We deal with it as though we can just rush in, rush out, we have other things on our mind, how long we are going to be and all this. We are before the One with the solemn authority, before whom we are accountable. We supposedly offer Him worship and we can't give Him our complete attention? As though this is some trite thing.

In His hand He held seven stars. Out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. The sword coming out of His mouth, and this will be repeated a couple of times in chapter 2, then we see it in chapter 19. You have to go back to Isaiah 11. This is a Messianic passage, you're familiar with Isaiah 11. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, a branch from his roots will bear fruit, the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, and so on. He'll not judge by what his eyes see, the end of verse 3, nor make a decision by what He hears. Why? Because He is the omnipotent one, He knows all, He doesn't have to gather the information and sort through it, He doesn't have to be told something. I mean, He knows it all. Verse 4, with righteousness He will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He will slay the righteous. Again you see it's a context of judgment. So the sword coming out of His mouth, it's His word. The rod of His mouth, the breath of His lips. So He speaks and His word works, it destroys the wicked, it brings condemnation to the guilty. That's the picture of the sword. It's the Word of God in its judgment. Hebrews 4:12, the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and it pierces, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And here you have the God of His word, His word comes from His mouth and it has all power. That's the picture of it being a sword. We don't have time to go to some of the other passages right now.

And His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When was the last time John saw that? On the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus Christ was on earth, 65+ years before when He was transfigured and His glory shone through. And in Matthew 17:2 they saw Him shining like this, like the sun. Interestingly, we are told that when He comes and establishes His kingdom then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. When we see Him we will behold Him, 1 John 3, when He appears we will be like Him for we will see Him just as He is. And we will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom. We don't become God, but by His grace He imparts the beauty of His character to us and the glory that He bestows on us.

An awesome scene portrayed here of the resurrected Christ. And He is not done, but we have to stop. The God that we serve, this is the Savior that loved us and died for us, this is the One who is evaluating our church today and each of us in it. This is a serious matter, not a game, not something to take lightly and for sure we better not take it lightly because He takes it very seriously. And He is the One to whom we will give an account, together as a church as each of these churches is dealt with together and of course as individuals as well. How thankful we must be that this One is our Savior and He has redeemed us by His blood. And that glorious truth will be proclaimed in the courts of heaven when we get to chapter 5.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace, for Your blessings. Thank You for the awesome unfolding of this vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ, the One who is our Savior, the One who loved us and died for us, the One who is our Lord, our Master, the One that we serve, the One to whom we individually and we as a church are accountable. Lord, may we take seriously the truth that has been presented, knowing that He stands in the midst of His churches, evaluating and judging, calling them to account. May we conduct our lives this week in light of the awesome privilege and responsibility You've entrusted to us as Your people. May Christ be honored. We pray in His name, amen.