Responding to the Glory of Christ

Revelation 1:17-20

Response to the Vision of Jesus in Glory!

Revelation 1:17-20, 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. 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. 19 Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. 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. Our society is so fascinated and taken up by the illusionary imaginary and scientific fictional. So many superheroes are fighting in the future world in our recent movies.

This led many people to wonder how the future is going to be like. Men have always been preoccupied with wanting to know the future. There is only one book that tells us the future accurately is the Bible. In the Bible the book of Revelation devotes greatest detail and attention to the future.

We have the chronicle of the world future written by God, through the pen of John. This book tells us how the world will come to its end. Jesus in the Old Testament as He was prophesied. Jesus in the gospels came into the world and lived His life in humility, died, and rose again, and ascended.

The apostles write about the meaning of His humiliation. The book of Revelation takes us to the future. The book of Revelation was written by the apostle John to be sent to seven churches which were in Asia Minor. Not just these seven churches but to the whole of the Christian world.

These churches were going through difficulty because of the persecution.

John wrote in 96 A.D., 60 years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Christianity has become an intolerable sect. John himself is in exile on the island of Patmos for preaching Christ. Believers are losing their lives. The reign of terror under Domitian, which began about 81, was the very reign of terror which resulted in John being exiled and taking the life of numerous Christians.

There was much suffering in the Church. There was death in the Church. It was very necessary for the church to be encouraged. The Church could have been well on the brink of losing all hope. This last New Testament book many years after its predecessor, and it is to assure the Christians that all their troubles under persecution are only temporary.

Jesus already exists in the full glory in which He will come. It is an encouragement. It would have been easy for Christians to be weary of the way the world was. It has been easy for Christians throughout the

history of the Church to be weary with the way the world was and even now. This book comes to us as much as to that early group of churches, as a comfort. It’s not always going to be like this. Jesus is coming, and He is coming not in humiliation, but in His in full glory. When He comes, He will deliver the world.

He will deliver the universe from the wicked, sin, demons, Satan, and death. This is the promise of this book. Before the future unfolded the Holy Spirit wanted to reveal to John some other things. Before the first vision of the future is given to John the Holy Spirit gives the vision given in chapter 1. It is a vision of the glorified Christ in the present tense.

Because the natural question would be what Christ is doing now? We have the Gospels which gives what Jesus did while He was on the earth. We know what is going to happen in the future, because that starts to unfold from chapter 4-22.

If Jesus is exalted and glorified in heaven, what is He doing now?

Chapter 1 answers that question. V 9 -11, John introduced himself as the writer. He introduced his circumstances as being on Lord’s Day, on a Sunday, in the Spirit. He heard a voice and was commissioned to write what he saw.

V 12 -16, the specific vision was given which we studied last week. The Lord of the Church in blazing glory, moving through His Church which is symbolized by golden lampstands. Christ is there in His church to empower, to intercede, to purify, to speak, to control, to protect, and to reflect and radiate His glory.

Christ present ministry. Now we come to the effects of the vision.

How should it affect us?

• Afraid/Fear,
• Assurance/Confidence, and
• Assignment/Responsibility.

1.

1. Afraid/Fear

What John saw was absolutely overpowering. Understandably he was afraid 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.

John’s response was like Daniel’s response. Daniel had an angelic visit, a vision that was equally startling.

Daniel 10:7-9, And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision; but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. 8 Therefore I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me; for my vigour was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength. 9 Yet I heard the sound of his words; and while I heard the sound of his words I was in a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground. He was devastated. The blood rushed out of his face, and he turned as white as a corpse, and he fell on his face in the dirt, shocked by the vision that he had seen.

Daneil like John, fell over like a dead man. Such prostration with fear. Such shock was the experience of several people who had visions. We will find Ezekiel repeatedly knocked over by the power of the visions that he had.

Ezekiel 1:28, like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking. Same reaction. Just fell over on his face.

Ezekiel 3:23, So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. Prostrating himself in fear, in awe of the holiness of God.

Ezekiel 9:8, So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, “Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

Ezekiel 43:3, It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw—like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.

Ezekiel 44:4, Also He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord; and I fell on my face. Ezekiel the dirty-faced prophet. It was not uncommon for people to be so jolted and so shocked by visions of the glory of

God that they fell on their face. Apostle Paul giving his testimony to King Agrippa.

Acts 26:13-14, at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. 14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

There is a fear that is inherent in a vision of the glory of God. When Jesus walked the earth, generally people didn’t fall to the ground. Generally, in seeing the incarnate Christ, they didn’t fall over on their face.

Why? Because His glory was veiled by human flesh. But to see unveiled glory is so devastating and so shocking that it causes one to fall over lifeless. It might look like a strange response for John, because John knows Jesus so well. John happily and joyfully, comfortably walked and talked with the Lord Jesus Christ every day in His earthly ministry. John leaned on Him at the last supper. John was part of the inner circle.

Why would John be so incredibly shocked? Why is John lying face down in the dirt as if dead? John would have looked upon the face of his Master with ecstatic bliss and joy beyond words to describe. John, the beloved disciple, knew the Lord all his life.

Their mothers were sisters, which would mean that John and Jesus were first cousins. He was a beloved disciple in that inner circle who lived next to the very heart and ministry of our Saviour. He laid his head on Jesus’ bosom at the Last Supper. He stood at the cross. He saw the blood and the water flow out like a fountain from His heart.

It was this beloved disciple John, who in obedience to the loving, tender, shepherd word of the Savior took Mary, the Lord’s mother, to his home and cared for her. Yet when he sees the Master, on this Isle of Patmos, he falls at His feet as dead.

John would have looked upon the Lord with joy unspeakable, with a bliss and a gladness that would be indescribable. Instead, great fear fell upon him. The beloved disciple is looking upon unveiled deity. In the days of His flesh ministry in the earth, His Godhead was covered over. it was curtained in the flesh. His flesh, His body was a veil that covered the glory of His godhead.

Occasionally the glory of the deity of Jesus shine through, such as on the Mount of Transfiguration when His face shone like the sun, and His garments were white as no fuller could make them. But for the most part, the Godhead of our Lord shined through the veil of His face with only an occasional and softened light.

But here, John is looking upon the unveiled glory and deity of our Lord Christ. This time John is looking at the Ancient of Days.

• He is looking at God, whose countenance shines like the sun.
• He is looking into the eyes of the judge of all the earth, eyes that urn and flame like fire.
• He is beholding the presence, the face of the great living God Himself.

John falls down before our Lord as one who is dead. John could look with undimmed and undaunted eye upon the throne made of jasper. He could look unhindered on the emerald rainbow. He could look unabashed on the seven lamps that burned before the throne of God.

He could even gaze in glory and wonder on the crystal sea that was like unto beautiful, burnished glass. When the Lord opened to him the doors into heaven and into hell for him, his soul didn’t tremble, and his spirit didn’t even quake. But when he looked at Jesus and saw deity resurrected and glorified, he fell as a dead man.

John was conscious of the burden of his own nothingness immediately. The burden of his own insignificance and his own shortcoming. No insect would be expected to live in the furnace of the sun. No sinful mortal can look into the face of God.

No man’s ear can hear the voice of the Almighty in awe. In reverence, godly fear for his own destruction because of his sin. He fell like a dead man at the feet of Christ. This is a reverential fear that recognizes who it is it sees and recognizes who is being seen by God.

It is the right response. Revelation 6. John looking into the future here at the breaking of the sixth seal.

• Will have a great earthquake.
• The sun will become black as sackcloth made of hair.
• The whole moon will become like blood.
• The stars of the sky will fall to the earth like shaking a fig tree.
• The sky will split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, like a venetian blind.
• Every mountain and every island will be moved out of their places.
• The whole universe goes pitch black.

Revelation 6:12-16, I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then

the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

Fear. When they see the blazing coming of Jesus Christ, they will be in fear. So, there you have unbelievers who fear the presence. Here is even a believer who falls over in a dead faint, afraid, terrified by what he has seen. John’s reaction is not unlike the reaction of Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah went into the temple upon the death of King Uzziah because he wanted to see God. He was concerned about his people. Uzziah had been king for 52 years. As long as Uzziah was king, everything seemed to be fine. It was like God’s blessing was on them because Uzziah had brought about prosperity and peace, a strong position in the cold war. The people of Israel were still, on the surface, religious, and having the same king 52 years, who was basically a good man, appeared to be the blessing of God.

Uzziah did a foolish thing. He tried to move from being a king to a priest. He invaded the sanctity of the priestly office. God gave him leprosy and killed him. It was the judgment of God. Isaiah wants to find out what’s happening, because he wants to bring a message to the people, so he goes to the temple.

Isaiah 6:1, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. He sees God is still sovereign, even though Uzziah is dead, and they have begun to feel the judgment of God. God is still on the throne.

• God is still sovereign.
• God is still ruling.
• God is still lofty.
• God is still exalted.

Isaiah sees the blazing Shekinah glory in this vision filling the temple where He is. It is as if God’s throne appears in the temple and then fills it with blazing glory. Isaiah sees, in this vision, seraphim, angels whose unique task it is to guard the holiness of God.

Isaiah 6:2-3, Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and

with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” They are standing above the throne of God, having six wings.

• Two wings they cover their faces.
• Two wings they cover their feet.
• Two wings they hovered or flew.
• They had to cover their faces because they couldn’t look at the full glory of God or they would be consumed.
• They covered their feet for the place whereon they stood was holy ground.
• Their wings were in motion because they were ready to do service at a moment’s notice.

Isaiah 6:4, And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

This is a vision of God. Isaiah sees God as sovereign.

• He is on the throne, lofty, exalted.
• He sees Him as all glorious as the emanating Shekinah glory fills the temple.
• He sees Him as absolutely and perfectly holy. “Holy, holy, holy.”
• He sees Him as a God of judgment, as fire and smoke fill the temple.

An overpowering vision.

What was Isaiah’s response?

Isaiah 6:5, So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

• I am going to pieces.
• I am shattered.
• I am devastated.
• I am destroyed.
• I am damned.
• I am cursed.

Isaiah was the best man in the country. He was the man of God, the prophet of God, the holy man. But when he saw himself compared to God, all he could see about himself was his sin. Any true vision of God is devastating.

Job 42:5-6, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.”

Seeing God is a frightening thing. It fills the heart with fear to see the glory of God. Matthew 17. The appearance of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration when He revealed His glory. They went up to the Mount of Transfiguration,

Matthew 17:1-2, Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Blazing light, brilliant as the noonday sun. They saw His glory.

They saw the glorious Christ.

What was their response?

Matthew 17:6, And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. If it weren’t so sad and pathetic, it would be amusing to hear the silly testimonies of the people who run around claiming they saw God.

If you saw God, you had been terrified. If you saw the glorified Christ, you would be terrified. John had the normal reaction of someone who has really seen the resurrected, ascended, glorified Christ. Holy fear. I don’t think that we will be able to say honestly that we have understood this vision until it inspires a healthy fear in our hearts. When you see the blazing, holy glory of Christ, you have reason to be afraid because of your sin.

The Church will never be holy until preachers begin to preach the glory of God. Because until people see God for who He is, they will never understand their own sinfulness and be driven to holiness. 2. Assurance. The Lord was not satisfied to leave John lying in the dirt like a dead man.

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.

How could the Lord put His right hand on John if He had in His right hand seven stars? This wasn’t the Jesus John had walked with in Galilee. This wasn’t the Jesus that John had watched hanging on the cross. This wasn’t the Jesus he had eaten with after the resurrection by the sea when they had breakfast in Galilee.

This was the unveiled, glorified, exalted Lord of the Church. John had seen some glimpses of that glory, a few post- resurrection appearances, but this is devastating. John is undone, just like Isaiah. Like Isaiah, who in the depths of fear and self-condemnation was touched and cleansed, so John is touched.

Matthew 17:7, But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.”. A touch of reassurance and comfort. Those people who saw the glory of God and fell on their face may have felt they were about to get a sword through their chest. They may have felt that they were about to get an ax into their neck.

But instead, they received a touch.

For John, a familiar touch, a touch from the one he had walked with 65 years before, and now a comforting touch for this troubled apostle. This is wonderful comfort to all Christians who feel overwhelmed by the glory of Christ.

For all Christians who feel overwhelmed by the holiness of God. We preach the holiness of God. To all who are overwhelmed by the glory of God and the holiness of God. Here is a touch. Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid.” In the Greek, “Stop being afraid.”

Jesus was commanding him to be comfortable. “Stop being afraid,” is a common biblical expression. First spoken by God to Abram. Often spoken to God’s people Israel, at least seven times in the book of Isaiah. In the book of Joel.

To be exposed to the absolute, unveiled, blazing, holy glory of Jesus Christ is a frightening thing, and comfort is needed.

John was so afraid. He thought he was going to be killed. He almost died of a heart attack. He almost died of fear, frightened to death because he knew his sinfulness. The reassurance is absolutely thrilling. The reassurance is all bound up in who Jesus Christ is.

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. All of those are terms to identify Jesus Christ. They identify Him to John in a way that brings comfort.

Jesus identifying Himself as, “I am” Remember those two familiar words egō eimi in the Greek because they were the very words Jesus used when He calmed the troubled sea.

John 6:20, “Behold, I Am, stop being afraid.” Don’t be afraid. I Am is here.”

Who is I Am? God. The name for Yahweh. God revealed Himself as I Am in Exodus 3:14.

His name not just speaks of His eternality, but that’s His redemptive name. Jesus is saying to Him, “Don’t be afraid. I Am is here.” The Redeemer God is here. The same God who loves us and released us from our sins in verse 5 “I am the first and the last.”

This is one of the great texts to affirm the deity of Christ. This is also the name God took for Himself throughout the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 41:4, Who has performed and done it, Calling the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the Lord, am the first; And with the last I am He.’ ”

Isaiah 44:6, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.

Isaiah 48:12, “Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Here Jesus Christ is saying, “I am the first and the last,” and therefore claiming to be God.

This same title is applied to Jesus Christ at the end of the book of Revelation.

Revelation 22:13, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Writing to the church in Smyrna.

Revelation 2:8, “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead,

and came to life

Jesus Christ taking the very Old Testament name of God and applying it to Himself. John doesn’t need to fear, because the one who tenderly touched him to reassure and comfort him was no other than the glorified God-Man. The very one who struck fear in his heart is the one who touches him and tells him not to be afraid.

When the holy, glorified Lord Himself touches a sinner with tender assurance, that is encouraging.

Romans 8:31, What then shall we say to these things? If

God is for us, who can be against us?

The glorified Lord of the Church is the great King and High Priest without equal. When all false God’s have come and gone, He remains. He was before them, the first; and He will be after them, the last. Idols will come and go.

• Jesus was before them.
• Jesus will remain after them.

V 18, I am He who lives Jesus as the God of all comfort, who is comforting John. He says, “I am the living One.” Jesus said it before.

John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The living One is a title for God in the Bible.

Joshua 3:10, And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and

the Jebusites

Psalm 42:2, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 84:2, My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Hosea 1:10, “Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’

God is called the living One. When we come to the New Testament, we see the something.

Matthew 16:16, Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 26:63, But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”

Acts 14:15; Romans 9:26; ² Corinthians 3:3, 6:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; ¹ Timothy 3:15 and 4:10. Hebrews 3:12, 9:14, 10:31.

God repeatedly is called the living One.

Jesus here says, “I Am the living One.” This is a claim to the deity. There is no other explanation for this. I am God, the living One. Jesus is not a dead idol. He is not made of stone or wood, or metal. The glorified Lord of the Church is the eternally living God who was before all gods and will remain after all God’s.

He is the I Am. John doesn’t need to fear because the living God, the first and the last, the I Am says, “Stop being afraid of Me.” 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.

Literally, the Greek says, “I became dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.” The living God, who could never die, became Man and became dead. God did not cease to live, but the Man Jesus Christ died.

1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

I died for you, John. I became dead, but behold I am alive forevermore.

Hebrews 7:16, who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. By the power of an endless life. He couldn’t die. Jesus is God. Jesus lives again in glorified humanity and deity that will never die.

There is nothing to fear, for I will always be alive. I have conquered death for you, and I will always live to secure you.

Hebrews 7:25, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus Christ then claims to be the

• Eternal,
• Redeeming,
• Living God,
• God who is before and after all other God’s,
• God who has personally conquered sin, death, and hell.
• Lives forever to secure His people.

The God who alone has the power to give life and take it away. That God who says, “Stop being afraid of Me.” V 18, And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Death and Hades are synonyms.

• Death is the condition, and
• Hades is the place.

Hades would be the equivalent of Old Testament Sheol, the place of the dead. Jesus says that He has the keys.

What does that mean? Keys mean access. Keys mean authority. A key gives someone the power to open and close. The living, exalted Christ says, “I Am the one who controls the door to death and Hades. I have the keys that open it and let people in. I have the keys to close it. I decide who dies and when. I decide who lives.”

What a statement.

What does John have to fear?

Holy God in the form of the living, glorified Lord of the Church reaches down and touches this sinner and says, “Stop being afraid.” The touch is the touch of comfort. Amazing reassurance because it comes from the eternal I Am, the one who transcends all the gods that come and go.

The one who is alone is life and gives life. The one who has died and conquered death. The one who controls life and death. John, you have nothing to fear nor does anyone who loves Him.

• No matter what we might see of His glorious holiness,
• No matter how it might traumatize us and leave us lifeless,
• No matter how unworthy we feel,
• No matter how deserving of the judgment of God,
• No matter how fearful of death. 3. Assignment/Duty.

Jesus touches us and says, “Stop being afraid. You belong to Me. I, the eternal God, have determined your destiny. I have paid the price for your sin. You have nothing to fear.” We need to have holy fear.

One who has such an experience of the vision of the glory of Christ, one who has received such assurance is bound to have a duty. V 19, Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.

Based upon what you have just experienced, get up and do your task. Jesus already told him what He wanted him to do. 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.”

Instead of writing it, he was lying there on the ground like a dead man. Now get up and go to work. This vision should inspire the healthy tension between fear and assurance, but it also should lead to duty. It’s a call to duty.

John was told to write three things.

First: Past “Write the things which you have seen.” The vision. The vision of chapter 1. Second: Present. “And the things which are” The present. The messages come immediately from Revelation 1:20-3:22. Third: Future. “Write also the things which shall take place after these things.”

Revelation Chapters 4-22. John was commissioned to write a three-part book. The vision just seen, chapter 1. The letters to the churches, chapters 2 and 3. The revelation of future history, chapters 4 to 22. Anyone who has the opportunity to experience God, to see God, to fear God, and to be assured by God has the duty to pass it on.

What is our duty? V 3, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

• Read,
• Hear, and
• Keep.

The visions that we are going to see in this book are going to shock us. They may put fear in our heart. The Holy Spirit may have to come and touch us to give us assurance. But their intention is to bring practical bearing on our life and make us responsible to spread this message to others.

We have a duty. We have a duty to read it, to listen to what it says, to heed it, and then to testify to it when given the opportunity.

Conclusion

2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

If you look in the Word of God, which is a mirror, and it reflects to you the glory of God. The glory of God is reflected through the Word. The veil has been taken off our face in Christ we can see clearly and as we look at the glory of the Lord coming through the Scripture we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, from one level of glory to the next level of glory, to the next level of glory from the Lord, by the Holy Spirit.

If you study the book of Revelation, you are going to see the glory of Christ, because this is the revelation of His glory. As you look in the mirror of the book of Revelation, it will reflect to you the shining glory of the Lord, the brightness of His glory. That reflection will transform you into His very image from one level of glory to the next as the Spirit of God applies it to your life.

So, we are in for a life-changing experience.