Christ Manifested in Glory

Revelation 1:9-17

Vision of Glorified Jesus!

Revelation 1:9-17, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, ¹¹ saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” ¹² Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; ¹⁵ His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His

countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. ¹⁷ And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. The first great vision of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to John in this wonderful book.

The theme of Revelation is Christ in His glory. The theme of the Gospels is Christ in His humiliation. This book is the majestic revelation of the exalted, glorified Son of God as we look at Him after His ascension in heaven and in His second-coming majesty.

This person is equaled in grandeur description of Christ in the book of Revelation 19:11-16. We have one vision in the beginning and another at the end. These two glorious revelations of Jesus Christ set the pace. They are the brackets in which all the other revelations occur.

This vision of glorified Jesus Christ, along with all the rest of them in Revelation, must have been a monumental encouragement to the persecuted, distressed, discouraged, beleaguered believers in Asia Minor who first received this great book.

They were undergoing persecution under Domitian had resulted in John being exiled and banished to the isle of Patmos. When things were bleak for the church, it was a wonderful thing to receive a book which predicted the glory of Jesus Christ in the future.

This vision of glorified Jesus Christ is not a future vision but a present one. Not just to say that Jesus Christ will be like and what He will do in the future but what He is now, and this is what He is doing now. It shows Jesus Christ in majestic glory in the present ministry to His church, which was going on until He comes again.

As we look at this vision it will open your eyes to see the glory of our Lord of the church. Verses 9-11 setting of circumstances for this vision. First John introduces himself as the writer and says some things about himself.

Now he introduces the situation in which the first vision came, including a declaration from heaven itself to write down everything that he saw and heard.

A statement about the author about his circumstances. A statement from God regarding his commission to write. V 9, John wants to identify for us himself as the writer. “I, John.” He speaks almost here with amazement. John had this experience and was commissioned to write this book. It is almost as if he is so utterly unworthy that it shocks him that he would have such an inestimable privilege.

John doesn’t relate himself to the readers in a position of authority. Though he could as an apostle, as that unique apostle in the inner circle with Peter and James. The one who reclined on the very heart of Jesus at the Last Supper and one who was given the privilege of writing a gospel.

The one who was given the privilege of writing three great and glorious epistles. He doesn’t exalt himself in any of those ways but rather speaks of himself in very common and familiar terms I, John, your brother and fellow partaker.

He reduces himself from any thought of elevation that his apostolic office or experience might have rendered him. John brings himself down as simply a brother and a fellow partaker.

John is not writing authoritatively but as a witness these visions. John is a Christian brother and a companion, a fellow partaker with you. We find John as a humble witness to the incredible revelation of Jesus Christ that begins to unfold with this first vision.

V 9, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Fellow partaker in three ways.

➢ Tribulation, ➢ Kingdom, and ➢ Perseverance. John knows that these are three characteristics of believers. They are in tribulation. Not the tribulation in terms of some defined period in the future, but they are undergoing persecution, and he is as well.

He says I am just one of you, a brother and a fellow partaker of persecution. He is being exiled to this island, could completely identify with the suffering church and the Christians.

Identify with you as to the Kingdom. I identify you as a fellow member of the Kingdom over which Jesus Christ rules, not yet His earthly, visible Kingdom but the spiritual, invisible Kingdom. The very same Kingdom he referred to back in verse 6 when he said that Jesus Christ made us into a Kingdom.

I am, along with you, a subject of Jesus Christ. I am a member of the redeemed community over which He is Lord and over which He is King. I wait for the glory of His millennial reign to come. Identify with you in perseverance.

John speaks of endurance and perseverance in difficult times. John has been given the privilege of seeing and hearing and writing such a great truth. John in a humble and sweet way bring himself down to share with the persecuted Christians in joyful endurance the joy of waiting for the blessed coronation and reign of Jesus Christ.

1. Circumstances. V 9, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I am exiled to this island because I preached what I received from God and Jesus Christ. Some would say the Word of God could be a reference to the Old Testament. The testimony of Jesus could be a reference to the New Testament.

I am here because I proclaimed the whole revelation of God, because I preached the truth without hesitation. Because of that, I am on the island called Patmos. Patmos is a barren place, a rocky little island. Belongs to a group of about fifty islands in the Mediterranean.

It is about 10 miles long and at its widest point, between five and 6 miles. It was about 40 miles west of Miletus, which was the nearest harbour to the city of Ephesus. It is in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Asia Minor, a nondescript little place.

Banishment to such remote islands was a common form of Roman punishment.

If the crime was political, the person banished to the island could have a certain amount of freedom to do whatever he wanted and move about. But if the banishment was criminal, then he was a part of what we would call a chain gang.

So here was John, having committed what would have been defined by the Roman government as a criminal offense, probably about ninety years of age and serving on a chain gang. Probably breaking rocks or something on the island of Patmos, a part of a penal colony.

Early Christian tradition says he was banished there under the leadership of Domitian. When Roman Emperor Domitian was reigning in the Roman Empire anyone who was banished lost all their civil rights and lost all their property.

Since he had been the leader of the hated Christians and probably the last of the apostles that was still around, by this time he is writing in about 96 A.D., banishment must have been for him hard labour. An island for criminals, but John makes it clear that his only crime was unshakable loyalty to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Shut out from the world, he traversed the heavenlies.

In these bleak circumstances, John was given the most extensive revelation of future things ever given. We gain the greatest knowledge of God through the deepest suffering. 2. Commission. V 10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, I was in the Spirit.

He was somehow transcended from normal human apprehension. He had gone beyond sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. He was experiencing something that is not experienced by the normal human senses. I was empowered through the Holy Spirit to an experience that is beyond the normal senses. I was taken into a condition in which God could supernaturally reveal things to me.

This would have been very much like the experience of Ezekiel. Peter in Acts chapters 10 & 11 when he is given by God visions. John says I was supernaturally transported out of the fleshly world, and I was in the Spirit.

Awake, not sleeping and this is not a dream. But his senses were empowered with clarity to perceive revelation from God. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. The term “the day of the Lord” is a term used for the final judgment of God.

“The Lord’s Day,” a distinction.

When is Lord’s Day? Sunday. The Lord’s Day came to be the customary way of referring to Sunday because it reminded everyone of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was Sunday on the isle of Patmos and the vision came. V 10, I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, Whose voice, is it?

The voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will identify Himself after the vision to John, that voice was like the piercing brilliance of a trumpet. V 18, I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Do you remember that in the account of the giving of the law in the Old Testament?

Exodus 20:18, Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Very often, God’s voice or the voice of Christ in supernatural glory sounds to the hearer like a great, loud, piercing trumpet.

It came with the commanding clarity of a trumpet. Throughout the book of Revelation, a loud sound or a loud voice indicates the solemnity of what is about to be revealed. It is so common in the book of Revelation Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, & 19, and several times in those chapters we hear this loud voice, and then comes the solemn revelation.

This is the first of those, and what it indicates is the powerful, sovereign, commanding voice out of heaven. In this case, it is the voice of the risen, glorified Christ. V 11, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to

Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” John was commanded here to write this down and to send it to the seven churches that have already been noted in Revelation 1:4. When it says Asia there, it means Asia Minor, which would be modern Turkey. These were seven prominent cities.

Historians tell us that these seven cities were the seven postal districts in Asia Minor, which made them central points for the dissemination of information. Because they were the seven postal centers, they would have attracted the influx of people. Also, would be the key place for instant dispatch to send these things further.

There were also seven cities in Asia Minor where churches had been planted. There were other cities where churches had been planted also, but they were not included among these seven. If we study the map of Asia Minor, we could conclude that the order of the cities is the route that a messenger would take if he was going to visit all those places.

Write this down and send it off.

➢ First go to Ephesus, ➢ Then Smyrna, ➢ Then Pergamum, ➢ Then Thyatira, ➢ Then Sardis, ➢ Then Philadelphia, and ➢ Finally, to Laodicea. This would be the route that a messenger would take.

3. Vision. V 12, Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, “I turned.” When he turned, he saw the vision of the glorified Son, and he saw the Lord of His church, and he saw Him amid His church.

What is this picture telling us? The ministry of the glorified Son in His church now. As John turns, instead of seeing only the glorified Christ, he sees first, seven golden lampstands.

What is golden lamp stands? V 20, The mystery of the seven stars which 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 which you saw are the seven churches.

They are the seven churches. John is seeing the vision of the seven churches. These were portable lampstands, made of gold, that would be set around a room, and at night, a little oil lamp would be set in them for light.

The church is seen as God’s lampstand from which the light of life shines. As Jesus said the church is the light of the world. God’s people are assembled in churches so that they can shine forth the light. Each church, a light in its own location.

The lampstands are golden. Why? Because gold was the most precious and beautiful metal. The congregation of God’s people are not only to be lights in the world, but they are to the heart of God the costliest, the most beautiful, precious, and valuable thing on the earth.

So valuable that God was willing to purchase them with His own Blood. There are seven of them.

Why are there seven? Seven is the number of completeness.

Exodus 25:41-50, in God’s design for the temple and the tabernacle, a seven-fold lamp.

Zechariah 4:2, And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl

on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Both Moses and Zechariah had seven lamps on their stands. It signifies the completeness, symbolic of the whole people of God. Here, the whole church, the whole body of Christ.

V 13, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. We have a vision of the church and in the midst of the vision of the church One like a Son of Man.

Who is the Son of Man? Jesus Christ. John sees the glorified Lord in the midst of His precious church. What is Jesus, the Son of Man doing there? Jesus empowers His church. Son of Man is the messianic title for the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is in the midst of His church. It pictures Him there with His presence amidst the church.

Why is that important?

Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always.” Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans.” Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, I will make My home with him.” The great promise that Jesus Christ gave His apostles was that He would never leave them, and He would never forsake them, but He would take up His home with them.

We see here is the living, exalted, glorified Christ in the middle of His church to empower His church.

Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

We are empowered by the indwelling living Christ. He is present to lead. 1. Jesus empowers His church. We do not worship some crucified martyr. We do not worship some dead heroic religious leader. We have continual communion with the living Christ.

When we break bread and drink the cup, we are partaking with the very blood and body of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 18:20, For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

When the church does its holy work on earth and only two or three are gathered there in that holy work of confronting sin, in that case I am in the midst. Jesus is in His church to empower His church. 2. Jesus intercedes for His church.

V 13, One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

Two things

Clothed in a robe reaching to the feet. Kings wore such robes. Jonathan and Saul - Jonathan, being even a prince, wore such a long robe. The Greek word is used in the Old Testament Septuagint version even to refer to the robe of kings.

Not only did kings wear such robes but prophets wore such robes as well. Daniel chapter 10 a messenger from God had a linen robe made out of fine linen that was all the way down to his feet.

It is used in the Old Testament to speak of the robe of a king and the robe of a messenger from God. It could be that it indicates Christ’s kingly role, It could be that it illustrates His prophetic role. Some think it simply speaks of the great dignity of Christ, but there’s something beyond even this.

Most uniquely, this kind of robe in the Old Testament belonged to the high priest. We see here is Christ in His priestly role. He had across His chest this golden sash. We are reminded that the priests in the Old Testament wore on their chest, a little above their armpits, a sash.

Exodus 28, 29, 39, and Leviticus 16 speak of it. We see the Lord Jesus Christ in His priestly role, acting as the royal high priest on behalf of His church.

Hebrews 2:17-18, Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

He is a merciful and faithful high priest.

What does a high priest do? He intercedes.

Hebrews 3:1, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, He is called the high priest of our confession.

Hebrews 4:14-16, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He is interceding for us before God.

We have this great high priest among us. He’s moving among the lampstands. He’s moving in His church. He has an unequalled capacity to sympathize with us in all our dangers and sorrows and trials and temptations. He was exposed to all of them, and He is our sympathetic high priest.

Jesus loves us and releases us from our sins by His blood. He will continue in that love to be a faithful, compassionate, merciful high priest. He was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. He knows the path of victory in every temptation.

What comfort this is for the persecuted church, to know they have the high priest moving in their midst, seeking their blessing. We see the glorified, exalted Christ is present to empower His church, and He is present to intercede for His church.

3. Jesus purifies His church. V 14, His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; After describing His clothing in verse 13, he moves to His person, His head, His hair, His eyes, His feet, His voice, His right hand, His mouth, and then His face.

He is not seeing the clothing. He’s gone from the lampstands to the clothing to the very features of the exalted Lord of the church.

John sees Him primarily in His purging, purifying, disciplining, chastening work though other features are certainly apparent as well. The New Testament is clear on the standard that Christ has set for His church. Paul said He wants the church to be a chaste virgin.

Paul said the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for the church, that He might sanctify and cleanse her, that she might be glorious without wrinkle or spot or any such blight. Paul said He wants the church blameless and holy.

Paul said that Jesus Christ reconciled the church to present her before God holy and blameless. Peter even reminds us that He wants the church as holy as He is holy. Hebrews chapter 12, He will discipline like father discipling his children.

John 15, Jesus said He will prune the vine branches. Sometimes His chastening is even fatal, as it was for Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. For some in the Corinthian church who were sleeping because they had abused the Lord’s table.

1 Peter 4:17, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Jesus will cleanse His church. He will purge His church.

We see Him here in that purging vision. His head and His hair were white like wool/snow. An obvious reference to Daniel 7:9, “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; However, in Daniel 7:9, it is describing God.

Here, it is describing Christ.

What a marvelous parallel? This indicate again to us that Jesus Christ is God. Jesus has the same attributes and characteristics as God. The word white. This is not white, like a flat white colour or a white piece of paper or a white wall or a white garment. That is not the idea.

The word white means a blazing and it has the potential to glowing white light.

John is seeing His glory here. The symbol of eternal, glorious holiness. Whenever God showed His Shekinah, He was showing His holiness. It demonstrates His purity of life. It demonstrates the purity of His truth. He is wise and He is holy. He is blazing, glowing, brilliant, shining light.

“And His eyes were like a flame of fire.” He is seeing the blazing, white, brilliant, shining glory of Christ, and coming out of it like two lasers, one from each eye, come the very flames of fire. This is the holy, glorious, exalted Lord with searching, penetrating gaze, looking to the depths of His church.

Revelation 2:18, “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: His eyes were like a flame of fire, penetrating into the church.

Revelation 19:12, His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.

Those gazing, penetrating, supernatural lasers that penetrate right through, with holy intelligence, to reveal to Him everything He wants to see. When Christ moves through His church in His holy glory, His penetrating eyes see absolutely everything. His vision is accurate. There are no secrets. There is nothing hidden from Him whatsoever.

Hebrews 4:13, And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

The Lord of the church is holy. The Lord of the church sees everything, and He will deal with the sin of His church. V 15, His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; Red hot.

We have seen metal in a furnace, glowing, burning brass or bronze. All the tabernacle furniture that was used in for sin offering was always brass. When you see brass in this situation, you know it has something to do with sin.

We have here the feet glowing hot reference to judgment.

Anytime anybody came before the king, the king always sat on an elevated throne. When a criminal came in to be sentenced, he was always below the feet of the king. He would bow down and look up to the feet and then the throne and the body and then the head.

The feet of the king became the symbol of his authority. We find Jesus Christ with red-hot feet, moving through His church to exercise His chastening authority blazing, molten, pure, refined, gleaming feet of judgment. This metal is pure, refined by the holiness and the glory of God and ready to deal out pain.

➢ The glorious Lord of the church is present to empower the church. ➢ Not just to empower the church, but to intercede for the church. ➢ Not just to intercede for the church but to purify the church.

4. Jesus speaks authoritatively to the church. V 15, His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; When He spoke, no longer was it the crystal-clear, sharp note of a trumpet, but John described it like the crashing of the surf against the rocks of the island.

Ezekiel 43:2, And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.

It is the voice of authority. It is the thundering voice like the crash of Niagara. The voice of power, the voice that commands.

John 5:28-29, Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

It is the voice of Christ speaking to His church. He speaks with authority to His church.

Hebrews 1:1-2, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ² has in these

last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; He is the one who speaks to His church. He speaks through the Word. He speaks to us through the epistles.

He speaks to us through His Spirit. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to empower. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to intercede. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to purify. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to speak. 5. Jesus control His church.

V 16, He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength V 20, The mystery of the seven stars which 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 which you saw are the seven churches.

In His hand He holds the seven stars. The majestic, holy glory of this vision of the Lord makes it more likely that what that means is that He controls the church.

Each of those churches has a representative messenger, somebody who represents the church, and He controls them. The right hand also is the right hand of power. The right hand of might. The right hand of authority. The right hand of strength.

Revelation 2:1, “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:

Revelation 3:1, “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

The Lord of the church controls the seven stars.

Who are they? The seven messengers. The word angelos literally means messenger. It can mean angel and does throughout the book of Revelation, but I don’t believe it can refer to angels here because we have no teaching in the Bible anywhere that angels are the leaders of the church. None!

These are seven men who represent the seven churches, and most likely they are seven prominent leaders in the church like elders, or pastors. Christ is saying that I hold you in My hand as a symbol that I hold all the leadership of that church in My hand. I hold that church in My hand.

Each must be a significant leader to be held in the hand of Christ. They are not just messengers who are going to deliver the letter. They are not angels because the Lord would never give a letter to angels to give to the church.

But rather they are seven key leaders, representing the eldership of those churches. He says I hold those all leaders in My hand. The plurality of elders taught in the New Testament, but there can be one who represents that plurality as a spokesman. Even the twelve are equal yet they had Peter as spokesman.

Jesus is saying that I control the church. I mediate that control through the leaders.

A leader in the church is simply a tool through which Christ mediates His leadership. He is simply an agent by which the sovereign Lord of the church controls the church. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to empower. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to intercede.

➢ The Lord of the church is there to purify. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to speak. ➢ The Lord of the church is present to exercise sovereign control. 6. He is there to protect His church. V 16, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

What does the sword signifies? Judgment.

Revelation 19:15, Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

The Lord of the church has a sword, and He wields it in defense of His church.

Revelation 2:12, “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged

sword

Revelation 2:16, Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Anybody inside the church that threatens the life of that church, anyone who tries to sow lies, any unbeliever who comes in to corrupt the church as they tried to in that church, He says I will take My sword out and I will use it. Jesus will protect His church. He doesn’t mean to fight the battle on the outside, He means to fight it on the inside.

The word sword, rhomphaia, is a large, two-edged, broad sword that would do tremendous damage. I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. The Lord of the church, defeating His enemies, those who attack His people, those who would destroy His church.

Inside or outside, He will take the sword of His mouth and deal with them. His words are potent and destructive and so is His power.

➢ The Lord of the church is there to empower. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to intercede. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to purify. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to speak. ➢ The Lord of the church is present to exercise sovereign control.

➢ The Lord of the church is there to protect. 7. Jesus’s glory through His church. V 16, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. He simply says here that I looked at His face and it was like the blazing sun.

Here John sees it in full brightness. John saw His face and it was like the sun at its blazing fullness on a clear day. John borrowed that expression from Judges.

Judges 5:31, “Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Lord!

But let those who love Him be like the sun When it comes out in full strength.” So the land had rest for forty years. He says I saw His face and it was like the sun shining in its strength, the sun at its blazing height.

In Judges, that’s what the Holy Spirit wrote about those that love God, that they were like the blazing sun at its height. The link is wonderful. ➢ In Judges 5:31, the ones that love God are like the blazing sun. ➢ In Revelation 1:16, Jesus Christ is like the blazing sun.

The Lord shines in His church and He shines through His church. We who love Him reveal His glory to the watching world. In Judges 5:31 is about the faces of those who love Him shining like the sun is linked with the idea of judgment in the very same verse.

In Judges 5:31, also supports the interpretation of the two- edged sword here as a sword of judgment to protect the church from destruction by its enemies. The Lord will show His glory through His church. It’s what He desires to do.

Ephesians 3:21, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. He wants to shine through His church.

The Lord of the church is there to empower.

➢ The Lord of the church is there to intercede. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to purify. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to speak. ➢ The Lord of the church is present to exercise sovereign control. ➢ The Lord of the church is there to protect.

➢ The Lord of the church is there so that His glory can be seen through His people.

What was John’s response? V 17, And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. Absolute shock. Overwhelmed. Motionless. Almost lifeless.

One other time, on the Mount of Transfiguration, it says he fell on his face and was afraid. This time, it’s even worse that he was like a dead man.

Why? The awesome glory of the Lord of the church has struck him, and may it strike us.