Welcome to the 2013 Shepherds
Conference, General Session 3, Steve Lawson. I want to invite
you to take God's Word and turn with me to the book of Revelation,
Revelation chapter 1. And tonight I want to bring a
message entitled, The Glorified Christ. Revelation chapter 1,
I want to begin by reading the text, reading the passage, no
doubt you are very familiar with it, but to set it back before
your eyes and your hearts again, and tonight I trust that we will
feast at the feet of our glorious Lord. Revelation chapter 1, beginning
in verse 9, the Word of God reads, I, John, your brother and fellow
partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which
are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos because of the
Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the
sound of a trumpet saying, write in a book what you see and send
it to the seven churches. to Ephesus and to Samarna, to
Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia
and to Laodicea. 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 a son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to
the feet. and girded across his chest with
a golden sash. His head and his hair were white,
like white wool, like snow. And his eyes were like a flame
of fire. His feet were like burnished
bronze when it had been made to glow in a furnace. And his
voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he
held seven stars. and out of his mouth came a sharp
two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its
strength. When I saw him, I fell at his
feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand
on me saying, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and
the living one. and I was dead and behold, I'm
alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades." No church, no ministry and no
believer can rise any higher than its exalted view of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me what you think of Christ
and I will tell you everything else about your life and ministry.
Tell me what you think of Christ and I will tell you the state
of your worship, the standard of your holiness and your sacrifice
and evangelism and missions. Everything hinges on your vision
of Christ. A high view of Christ leads to
lofty, transcendent worship. A high view of Christ leads to
a high regard for the Word of God and to the preaching and
the teaching of His Word. A high view of Christ leads to
a passionate pursuit of holiness. A high view of Christ leads to
a high and holy regard for the church that He purchased with
His own blood. A high view of Christ leads to
a driving commitment to reach the world for Christ. But conversely,
a low view of Christ produces low worship. little regard for
His Word, low esteem of the pulpit, low standard of holiness, low
involvement in spreading God's Word. Everything hinges upon
your vision of who Jesus Christ is. This is why we need to see
again this awe-inspiring vision of Jesus Christ. Too many Christians
see only the Christ of the manger. of the Christ of Galilee in Jerusalem. Too many only see the Christ
of the Garden of Gethsemane, the Christ, of course, of Calvary
in the empty tomb. As glorious as these aspects
of Christ's earthly life and ministry are, they do not tell
the whole story. If we are to grow in grace and
mature in faith, we must also see Jesus not only as He once
was, but as He now is, King of kings and Lord of lords. We must
see this day not merely the meek Messiah and the humble Galilean,
but the sovereign Lord, the head of the church, the enthroned
Christ invested with all power and authority in the universe,
the ruling Christ who is the potentate over all, the one before
whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We must have
one eye upon Christ as He was 2,000 years ago. Every time we
come to the Lord's table, it is to remember His death, burial,
and resurrection. And our eye must never be taken
off of the Christ who suffered and bled and died for us upon
Calvary's cross. We are to remember Christ. We
preach Christ and Him crucified. But with the other eye, we must
be riveted and focused upon the Christ who is seated at the right
hand of God the Father this very moment, the One who is Lord over
heaven and earth, the One who is the final judge of the entire
human race and the One who has all authority invested to Him. Tonight, I want us to look at
this vision of Christ. And I want the Lord to restore
in our hearts again Jesus as He now is at the right hand of
the Father. As we look at this text tonight,
there are several truths that I want to bring to your attention
regarding this glorified Christ. I want you to note first as we
begin in verse 9, His supreme authority. This vision of Jesus
begins at the highest level with His absolute unrivaled supreme
authority overall. Notice how this begins in verse
9. I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation
and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus." At this
time, John is paying an enormous price for his commitment to the
gospel of Jesus Christ as he is now suffering tribulation.
Jesus had promised that it would come. Jesus said in John 16,
33, in this world you will have tribulation. And tribulation
has now come to John as he is the last living Apostle, he has
been arrested by the Roman Empire, he has been now made subject
to this exile to this lonely island of Patmos in the middle
of the Aegean Sea. And as we continue to read, we
see that he was on the island called Patnos because of the
Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. At the very heart of
the Word of God is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
entire Bible is about Christ. The Old Testament says that He's
coming. The gospels say that He is here. Acts proclaims Him. Revelation says that He is coming
again. And John is now on the island
of Patmos because he has been preaching the Word of God and
the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and he is suffering greatly. All who desire to live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And in verse 10
we read, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Suddenly and
unexpectedly, John was transported by the Holy Spirit to a supernatural
realm. And it was in this experience
that he writes, I heard behind me a loud voice. like the sound of a trumpet.
This loud voice was arresting. It was authoritative. It was
commanding. It was powerful. It was sovereign. It was dominant. It was a voice
that could not be ignored. It was a voice that summoned
the attention of John. And we read in verse 11, this
voice gives him direction now. Write in a book what you see
and send it to the seven churches. What Jesus has to say is not
directed to the Roman Empire, it is not directed to Caesar,
it is not a political message that He has for the hour. What
God is doing in the world is always through this church and
what Jesus has to say, He directs His truth to His church that
the church might be the church and have its effect and its influence
upon the world. And so Jesus says, right in a
book, what you see and send it to the seven churches. What God
will be doing in the world will always involve at the very center,
it will be the work and the witness of His church, to Ephesus, to
Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and
to Laodicea. And as you know, here in Asia
Minor, these are major cities on a postal route. And our Lord's
primary concern is for the spiritual condition and the spiritual health
and vitality of these churches. Verse 12, then I turned to see
the voice that was speaking with me. John is compelled to turn
and see who is addressing him in such an authoritative manner.
and I turned and I saw seven golden lampstands." We know from
verse 20 at the end of this chapter that these seven golden lampstands
are the seven churches of Asia Minor, the very ones that are
mentioned in the previous verse in verse 11. They are represented
as lampstands. What is the purpose of a lampstand?
It is not to draw attention to itself. The purpose of a lampstand
is to send forth light into a dark room. And that is the primary
mission of the church. We are the pillar and support
of the truth and we are to be lampstands that are sending forth
the truth of the Word of God into a dark and sinful generation. And these lampstands are golden
because they are of great value because they have been purchased
by the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are seven,
indicating a number of completeness as they would represent aspects
of every church in every generation on every continent down through
the ages. And verse 13, and in the middle
of the lampstands... I saw one like a son of man."
John sees the Lord Jesus in the central, primary, preeminent
place in the very midst of the church. Jesus is never on the
outside of what is shown here. He is never in the perimeter.
He is never a subsidiary to the church. He is always in the middle
of the lampstands and He sees one like the Son of Man. This harkens back to the vision
of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 when He approaches
the throne of the Ancient of Days. and receives from His Father
dominion and glory and a kingdom that endures forever. This Son
of Man is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the
Sovereign over the universe who has now received all authority
in heaven and in earth. He is clothed in a robe, reaching
to the feet and girded across His chest with a golden sash. Such attire was worn by kings
and by prophets and by high priests. And here is the regal authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ in regal attire as He is ruling and reigning
over His churches and presiding in the midst of the churches.
This is the sovereign Christ of whom Paul wrote in Ephesians
1 verse 20, that Christ has been raised by the Father and seated
Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, that highest
place of unrivaled authority, far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion and every name that is named. not only
in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things
in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all
things to the church." What a glorious picture this is of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as we would open this up
just for a moment, The entire Scripture affirms this supreme
authority of Jesus Christ. He is sovereign over creation.
He is the mighty God in Genesis 1 who spoke everything into existence
out of nothing. John 1, 3 says, all things come
into being through Him. And apart from Him, nothing came
into being. And all that He has created moment
by moment, Colossians 117 says, in Him all things hold together. He has created everything that
there is in the universe. And there is not one maverick
molecule but that it exists to follow the bidding of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is sovereign not only over
creation, He is sovereign over providence. He is the One who
is ordering all of the affairs of human history. He is the One
who is directing everything to its appointed end. He is the
Lord of history. It has been well said that history
is His story. There are no random events. There
are no chance occurrences. There are no mere accidents.
There is no blind fate. There is no good luck or bad
luck. There is no bad karma. Those
are all religious superstitions that are birthed out of myths
of paganism. There has been one sovereign
in heaven and over the earth and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has created it all. He controls
it all. He owns it all. And He is sovereign
over salvation as well. In eternity past, God the Father
chose His elect. He gave them to His Son. The
Son has come into this world that He might lay down His life
for the sheep. Not a one of them will perish.
Jesus said, all that the Father gives Me shall come to Me. Jesus
said, of all that He has given Me, I lose nothing. Jesus said,
you did not choose Me but I chose you and appointed you that you
would go and bear fruit. And Jesus is sovereign over judgment
as well as every knee will bow and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
This is His sovereign authority and no one will enter His Kingdom
except they bow the knee to this great and glorious King. All
who would be great in His Kingdom must submit and surrender to
His sovereignty. All who would follow Him must
ascribe to Him honor and power and dominion. All who would serve
Him must do so in humble compliance to this great and awesome Sovereign,
the Lord Jesus Christ. If there has ever been an hour
in history when we must yet again have this lofty transcendent
view of Christ, it is today. Number one, I want you to see
His sovereign authority. And I trust that in your life
and in your ministry, there is a continual magnification of
this supreme authority that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ alone,
that you are continually pointing people to Him and that you are
exalting Him and magnifying Him. And as John Piper says, God has
called us to be exaltational expositors. always exalting the
Lord Jesus Christ, that He would have the place of preeminence
in all of our ministries and in all of our churches, His supreme
authority. I want you to know, second, His
sinless purity. From Christ's clothing, John's
focus now looks upward to His head and to His hair which designates
His sinless character and His eternality. Notice in verse 14.
His head and His hair were white, like white wool, like white snow."
Jesus' head and hair here are pure white, not a speck of black,
not a hint of any darkness, but pure, undefiled, unblemished
white. This represents His absolute
holiness, it represents His eternal deity, and it represents His
infinite wisdom. Principally, His holiness, I
think, is being featured here, that the crown jewel of His attributes
that sits upon His head is His absolute sovereignty. His...this
is to say that His holiness means that He is separated from His
creation. He is set apart. He is a cut
above us. He is high and lifted up. He
is lofty, exalted, majestic, transcendent. He is infinitely
pure. He is flawless in all of His
ways. He is absolutely perfect in His
will and in His Word. He never errs. He never entertains
sin. He is without any moral blemish.
He is faultless. His person is holy. His words
are holy. His judgments are holy. The Bible
says that Jesus knew no sin. The Bible says He has been tempted
in all things as we are yet without sin. The Bible says He is holy,
innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners. And the Bible says
He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. Even the demons cried out, You
are the Holy One of Israel. He is the Holy and Righteous
One. And in like manner, this is what
the Lord Jesus Christ demands in His churches and of His pastors
and in our ministries. He demands our absolute holiness,
our pursuit of holiness, rather. First Peter 1 verse 15 says,
like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also
in all your behavior because it is written, you shall be holy
for I am holy. This is what the Lord desires
and demands of each and every one of us. We become very focused
upon programs. His focus is upon our purity. Robert Murray McShane, the great
Scottish preacher of the nineteenth century once remarked, my people's
greatest need is my personal holiness. It is not great talents
God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister
is an awful weapon in the hand of God." Beloved, this is exactly
what we must be pursuing because His hair and His head are perfectly
pure. He is absolutely holy and He
desires of us that we be those who have set apart ourselves
under the pursuit of godliness and holiness. Paul said, I buffet
my body and make it my slave, lest after preaching to others,
I myself should be qualified...disqualified. I call upon each and every one
of us to pursue holiness in our own personal lives as never before. Third, I want you to notice searching
gaze. Still in verse 14, while peering
at John's head, or at Christ's head, John notices His eyes. This divine vision becomes terrifying
as John sees fiery eyes flashing out of each eye socket. Notice
at the end of verse 14, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. This indicates that the Lord
Jesus Christ sees with penetrating gaze. He sees with x-ray vision. He sees into the depths of every
heart. He not only sees into our lives,
He sees through our lives. His eyes are like flaming torches. In Revelation 2, 23, it says
that He searches the minds and the hearts. He sees into every
church. He sees into every ministry.
He sees into every believer. He sees into every heart. There
is no creature hidden from His sight, Hebrews 4, 13 says. But all things are open and laid
bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Psalm 139
verse 12 says that even the darkness is not dark to Him. He knows
our minds. He knows our hearts. He knows
our motives. He even knows our very words
before we speak them. He reads us like an open book. And that Jesus sees it all is
both comforting and convicting. It is certainly comforting that
He sees that which we are doing in His name that is generated
by the power of the Holy Spirit. To the church at Ephesus, He
says, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance that
you cannot tolerate evil men. To the church at Smyrna, He says,
I know your tribulation. and your poverty and what you
are about to suffer. He says to the church at Pergamum,
I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. To the church
at Thyatira, He says, I know your deeds and your love and
faith and service and perseverance and that your deeds of late are
greater than at first. And to the church at Philadelphia,
he says, I know your deeds. You have kept my word and have
not denied my name. What a comfort this is that the
Lord knows our ministry and our desires to serve Him and to extend
His kingdom. And if you tonight are suffering
difficulty in your ministry for your stand for the Word of God,
I want you to know that this Christ who sees with blazing
eyes, He sees and He knows your faithfulness to His Word. He
knows all that you are facing. He knows about that faction in
your church. He knows about that elder who
is opposing you. He knows about your long hours
of study. He knows what others do not know,
what a comforting thing it is when we are misunderstood by
others and when we are falsely accused by others. This Christ
knows the true story and He sees our ministry and He sees our
hearts. for what it truly is. And at
times when others are against us and we suffer unjustly, our
great comfort is knowing that the Christ of heaven who is the
head of the church, He knows our desire to be faithful to
Him. But at the same time, this omniscience
of the Lord is very convicting as well, is it To the church
at Sardis, he writes, I know your deeds, that you have a name
that you're alive but you are dead. In other words, while others
look at the outward facade at the church at Sardis, Jesus says,
I know the real story about your church. Though you appear to
be alive, the fact is you are dead and I know it and I see
it for what it is. To the church at Laodicea, he
says, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish that you were cold or hot. You are lukewarm, neither
hot nor cold. How convicting this is tonight
to us who serve the Lord. The Lord Jesus sees and peers
into our hearts and into our motives and He is searching for
holiness. He is searching for purity. He
is searching for our love and devotion to Him and this is both
comforting and it is also convicting. And so many churches today are
trying to become like the world in order to win the world, but
they lose sight of the fact that Christ is looking for holiness,
not worldliness. Fourth, I want you to see His
smoldering feet. From his fiery eyes, John now
looks downward to Jesus' red-hot feet. He sees that his feet are
also on fire, just like his eyes. His feet are glowing like burnished
metal in a fiery furnace. In verse 15 he writes, his feet
were like burnished bronze which has been made to glow in a furnace. Here is pictured our Lord's righteous
judgment against all sin. And this sin is not necessarily
the sin that is in the world. This sin is the sin that is in
the church. This is what 1 Peter 4 verse
17 says, it is time for judgment to begin in the household of
God. Because Jesus is absolutely pure, He cannot tolerate sin,
especially sin in the church. The Puritans used to argue that
the Lord is more disturbed about sin in the church than He is
with sin in the world. The Puritans used to say, would
you be more upset with weeds growing in your neighbor's yard
or in your own garden? You would have greater concern
for your own garden than your neighbor's garden. And so it
is, our Lord is looking for holiness and purity in His own church.
And He is standing here in a position of righteous judgment of this
church. In ancient times, precious metals
were refined in a large furnace that were glowing red hot and
the purpose of the furnace was for purification, to remove the
false alloys and impurities. And as the impure stag rose to
the top, it was skimmed off leaving only behind a pure metal. That
is what is being pictured here. And in this, John sees Jesus
standing strong in judgment. Brass in the Bible represents
judgment. Fire in the Bible represents
judgment. Here is Jesus presiding in judgment
over His churches. To the church at Ephesus he says,
but I have this against you, that you have left your first
love. To the church at Pergamum he
said, but I have a few things against you. You have some there
who hold the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. To the church
at Thyatira he says, but I have this against you. that you tolerate
the woman Jezebel. And to the church at Sardis,
he says, you are dead. To the church at Laodicea, he
says, you are neither cold nor hot, you are lukewarm. Make no mistake about it, Jesus
judges sin in His churches. Our ministries are being tested
by fire. Our preaching is being tested
by fire. Our doctrine is being tested
by fire. Our motives are being tested
by fire. And on the last day, it shall
be revealed. In 1 Corinthians 3 and verse
13, Jesus said...or excuse me, Paul writes, each man's work
will become evident. for the day will show it because
it will be revealed with fire and the fire itself will test
the quality of each man's work. And in that day, it will be revealed
if we built with gold, silver and precious stones, our wood,
hay and stubble. Gold, silver and precious stones
go through the fire. They are not consumed. In fact,
it only refines the gold and the silver even more. But the
wood and the hay and the stubble will be burned up, it will be
consumed and here is our Lord standing with feet of fire addressing
His churches and warning them that there is coming a day, a
final day in which their ministries will be tested as by fire and
there will be a great revealing in that last day. Now, let me
tell you something very encouraging. You may be in a ministry situation
in which you are suffering unjustly for your commitment to the Word
of God. You may be in a set of circumstances that are entirely
out of your control. Those to whom you preach may
be rejecting your teaching and rejecting your ministry. Let
me tell you this, Jesus will have the last say on your ministry.
We will stand before these burnished bronze feet and answer for our
faithful commitment to His Word. George Whitefield was often falsely
accused by his critics and opponents, and this famed evangelist often
would say, the last day will bear it out. The last day will
reveal it. And if you are finding yourself
in a very difficult ministry situation, be of good cheer and
be encouraged because all that matters is this final judge,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you please Him, it does
not matter whom you displease. And if you displease Him, it
does not matter who you please. Ministry is very simple. You
please the great head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ
and it will all come out on the last day. Jonathan Edwards knew something
about this. Jonathan Edwards, the great pastor
at Northampton, Massachusetts, after 22 years of faithful ministry
in that one church, after 22 years, the great leader of the
Great Awakening was voted out of his congregation by a 90 percent
vote. And on July the 1st, 1750, and
I'll tell you what the issue was, Jonathan Edwards required
that when you came to the Lord's table, you must confess the Lord
Jesus Christ and live your life in a manner worthy of His calling.
That was too much for many of those old established families
there at Northampton. And they called in their other
family members and they rose up against Jonathan Edwards and
they put him out of his pastorate. And on July the 1st, 1750, Jonathan
Edwards preached his farewell sermon, his text was 2 Corinthians
1 verse 14. And Jonathan Edwards said, I
call you to a serious consideration. of the great day wherein you
must meet the Judge Himself who is infallible, who will try both
you and me. I must give an account of my
stewardship and of my service that I have done, and you must
give an account of your own conduct towards me." And Edwards went
on to say, there is coming a final day when this judge will deliberate
and will arbitrate between us. And he will have the final say.
We will gather together as a church family. And there as a congregation,
we will stand before the Lord. And the Lord will determine who
was in the right on that last day. Beloved, as you and I labor
for the Lord, there are times when we find ourselves in a most
difficult, challenging situation. Let us remember that it is the
Lord Himself who will preside in judgment on that last day.
And if we are faithful in serving Him, though we may be mistreated
in this world and suffer greatly. We will be rewarded on that last
day for our faithfulness to Him. And to hear from Him, well done,
good and faithful servant, will cause our hearts to explode with
joy on that last day. And it will overcome all of the
pain and all of the sorrow that we may have suffered for a lifetime.
I want you to note fifth, His sovereign voice. This awesome
vision in verse 15 now moves from sight to sound. John's focus
moves from what he sees to what he hears. And we read at the
end of verse 15, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. The Apostle now hears the voice
of Christ as He speaks to him and it is no ordinary voice.
John hears Jesus speaking like a tsunami that is rolling across
the ocean's surface and pounding against the waves, against the
rocks. The voice of Jesus, like the
sound of many waters, is drowning out every other voice. No other
voice can be heard but the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
Jesus says to His churches is the first word, it is the last
word. What Jesus says is all that matters. And as Jesus speaks to His church,
He says to the church at Ephesus, remember from where you have
fallen and repent or else I'm coming to remove your lampstand.
He says to the church at Pergamum, repent therefore or else. He
says to the church at Thyatira, I gave her time to repent and
she does not want to repent. He said to the church at Sardis,
remember therefore what you have received and heard, keep it and
repent. And to the church at Laodicea,
this one who speaks with the voice of many waters, says, I
advise you to buy from me gold and white garments and I salve,
be zealous therefore and repent." How is this voice of Christ heard
in His church? Well, the beginning of the next
verse gives the answer. This voice of Christ is heard
through His servants who preach His Word to these churches, the
voice of Christ is heard through the preaching of His Word. In
verse 16 we read, in His right hand He held seven stars. Christ
speaks through His spiritual leaders in the church who preach
His Word. These seven stars are the seven
preaching pastors in the seven churches. Revelation 1 verse
20 identifies them as the angels of the seven churches. And the
word angelos means messenger. There are heavenly messengers
and there are human messengers. And here, I believe, the reference
is to human messengers, those who have been appointed by God
as the point man, the leader among leaders, whose primary
ministry it is to be a teaching and preaching elder, to bring
the Word of God to the people in that local congregation. The
voice of Christ is heard as these seven stars proclaim God's Word
to these local congregations. They are stars in that they are
to radiate light in a dark world. They are stars in that they receive
light from external source which is the Word of God and they are
to radiate it and to reflect it in this dark world to the
churches. And the darker the world becomes,
the brighter the stars are. And as the days grow more difficult
at the end of this first century, the greater is the shining of
the light that will come from these seven stars. I would say
to us today in this hour, there has never been a time, I believe
in the history of the church, a greater hour to preach the
Word of God and to proclaim the glories of the grace in our gospel
of Jesus Christ. Let us not be hanging our heads
and saying, oh, how bad the days are. The darker the night, the
brighter the light. After darkness comes light. Let
us send forth the light of God as we preach the Word. These
seven stars are held in His right hand. He is the one who has sovereignly
picked them up. He is the one who has sovereignly
chosen them to be His servants. As He holds them in His right
hand, it is a place of special security, strong security, special
protection. Held in His right hand, nothing
can come against them except it pass through His hand. They
are upheld by Christ Himself. They are strengthened by Christ
Himself. They are protected by His providence. He shields us from many dangers. He maintains His preachers in
the midst of their fieriest trials. He causes His servants to persevere
in the most difficult of times. I have been in countless fiery
ministry situations in which there is no explanation that
I was able to escape and keep preaching except the Lord Jesus
Christ held me in His right hand and held me up that I might continue
to minister. I have endured elder meetings
in which all the elders opposed me, yet I was able to continue
to preach. I have endured deacons' meetings
in which the majority came to vote me out, yet I was held by
the right hand of Christ and enabled to keep preaching. I
have endured attempts to take over the pulpit while I was in
the act of preaching, and yet I was held by the right hand
of this sovereign Christ and was enabled to keep preaching.
I have endured congregational business meetings with organized
coups and organized attempts to put me out of the ministry
and yet I remained upheld by Christ's right hand and was enabled
to be able to keep preaching the Word of God. We are safer
in the fire when we are in His right hand than when we are out
of the fire and we're on our own. He will never, never, never
leave us nor forsake us. The steps of a righteous man
are ordered by the Lord and He delights in His way. Though He
falls, He shall not be hurled headlong because the Lord is
the one who holds His hand. I have been young and now I'm
old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor His seed
begging bread. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." What a privilege it is to be held
in the right hand of Jesus Christ, to uphold us as we serve Him
and minister in His name. And I want to say again, nothing
comes against us but it has to pass through His hands and all
of His purposes are for His glory and for our good. I want you
to continue to look at this. I want you to see number six,
His severe punishment. This vision unfolds yet further
in terrifying fashion. At the end of verse 16 we read,
and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. This same mouth
that roared like many waters now has a sharp two-edged sword
that is coming out of it. I do not think that this sword
is the Word of God as it is identified in Hebrews 4 verse 12, the Word
of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword.
The Word has already been identified for us in verse 15, His voice
was like the sound of many waters. No, this sharp two-edged sword
is our Lord's severe discipline that He exercises against His
church that becomes worldly, that becomes ungodly, that becomes
even apostate. This sword was the large blade
sword used by a warrior in fierce combat. While the church is not
Christ's enemy, sin in the church is His enemy. With His sharp
sword, Jesus will surgically remove sin from His body. Christ
loves His church and therefore desires its spiritual health.
Wherever he finds sin, he will address it. He must cut it out
of his body. He will use this sharp two-edged
sword. It is toward the church that
Jesus draws His sword to remove its sin by severe discipline. And this is no idle threat. To the church at Ephesus, Jesus
said, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out
of its place unless you repent. He said to Pergamum, repent or
else I'm coming to you quickly and I will make war against them. That's not talking about the
rapture, that's a rupture. To the compromising church in
Thyatira, Jesus warned that He would send physical illness,
tribulation and even death to the church. He said, I will kill
her children. To the carnal church at Sardis,
Jesus roared, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief,
you will not know at what hour I will come to you. And to the
lukewarm church at Laodicea, Jesus promised to spit them out
of His mouth, and the word actually means to be nauseated at the
stomach and to vomit them. All of these actions are pictured
in Christ wielding His sharp two-edged sword to remove sin
out of the life of His church. Threatened here by the Lord Jesus
is loss of spiritual power, loss of physical health, loss of ministry,
loss of divine favor, loss of blessing, and war-like casualties
and loss of life. This is no empty rattling of
the saber by our Lord. Spurgeon writes at this very
point, what a sharp two-edged sword it is. How it kills self-righteousness. How it cuts the throat of sins. How it slays a lost dead at the
feet of Jesus. How all subduing it is in the
hand of this Son. No sword of Gideon was ever so
potent against a horde of Midianites as the sword that comes out of
Jesus' lips against the host of our sins. When the Spirit
of God comes in His power into our souls, what death He works
and yet what life. What death to sin and yet what
new life in righteousness. And then Spurgeon says, O holy
sword, O breath of Christ, enter into our hearts and kill our
sins. Close quote. This is the sharp
two-edged sword that Jesus is pictured here as protruding out
of His mouth. What a serious thing it is to
be in the church. Ask Ananias and Sapphira what
a serious matter it can be to play fast and loose with God's
business in the church. Finally, I want you to see number
seven, His shining face. Here is the final component of
this awesome vision, the outshining glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. We read at the end of verse 16,
and His face, referring to His countenance, His appearance.
was like the sun shining in its strength. As John looks at Jesus,
He is shining brighter than ten thousand suns at high noon. It
is too intense for human eyes to stare at. No finite creature
can look upon Him like this and live. Here is the sum and the
substance of all that Christ is, fully God yet fully man. Here is the brilliant display
of all that is preceded in these previous verses, the blazing,
bright, blinding, shining, intrinsic glory of the Son of God, the
outshining of all of His divine attributes, His holy, divine
character, His awesome sovereignty, His omniscience, His righteousness,
all of it shining forth, His glory now unveiled like the shining
of the sun. And John is overwhelmed by this
encounter with the sovereign Christ. He is undone by such
a towering vision. And we read in verse 17, when
I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. This means John
went unconscious. He just fainted. He collapsed. He fell like cut timber. This
vision of the glorified Christ was so overpowering. that John
could no longer remain standing in His presence and just went
unconscious. As Spurgeon has said, better
to be dead at the feet of Jesus than alive anywhere else. This
vision is so mind-boggling, so heart-arresting, so jaw-dropping,
so knee-bending, so awe-inspiring. And He placed His right hand
on me, the same right hand with which He holds the seven stars. John can feel His holy hand upon
Him. And John must have been terrified. Will He chasten me? Will He discipline
me? And Jesus says to him, do not
be afraid. He speaks words of affirmation
and He speaks words of encouragement to John. I am the first and I
am the last. Everything is coming from Me
and everything is going to Me. He is the one who has created
it all and He is the purpose of it all. And he says, I am
the living one. And I was dead. John was the
only disciple there at the cross. John saw the Lord Jesus die upon
Calvary's cross. John was there and he heard Jesus
say, Son, behold your mother. Mother, behold your son. When
the shepherd was struck, the sheep were scattered, the other
disciples fled, but John remained faithful. He went all the way
to the cross with his Savior. And now he hears him say, I was
dead and behold, I'm alive forevermore. John was the one who went running
into that empty tomb. John was the one who saw the
risen Christ in the upper room. Jesus now proclaims that He is
alive and He is alive forevermore and I have the keys of death
and Hades. No one will enter the grave apart
from His sovereignty. No one will leave the grave apart
from His sovereignty. This exalted vision of the glorified
Christ is what must be recovered in our churches in this day.
We have become way too horizontal and not enough vertical in our
worship and in our preaching and in our pursuit of Him. We
are way too casual with this Christ. We are way too chummy
in so many churches. We are way too nonchalant. We
are way too light-hearted and careless with this Christ. We
need an IV hook-up of this awe-inspiring vision of Christ. We need this
flowing through our bloodstream. We need this tattooed on our
eyelids. We need this pounding in our
souls. You and I are going to have to
make a major decision in our ministries. Are we going to have
a vertical church or are we going to have a horizontal church?
Are we going to be trendy and trite or are we going to be transcendent
and timeless? We must put this kind of awe
back into our churches. We need to be astonished and
amazed again at the greatness and the grandeur of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. We must see Him again as the
sovereign Lord over all. He has authority to overturn
circumstances. He has authority to rout His
adversaries. He has authority to convert His
enemies. He has authority to cause the
wrath of man to praise Him. He has authority to build His
church, authority to open spiritually blind eyes, authority to unstop
spiritually deaf ears. He has authority to give a new
generation of Bible preachers. He has authority to grant a new
reformation in this hour. He has authority to send another
great awakening. He has authority to make His
name great in the earth yet again. Let us now fall down at His feet
like dead men. Let us gaze upon the glory of
this risen Christ and let us now fall before Him within our
hearts and within our souls and ascribe to Him the honor that
belongs to Him alone. Let us be astonished at His greatness. Let us be amazed at His glory. Let us adore Him for He alone
is sovereign and He is the head of the church that we serve.
May God bless us tonight with this glorious vision of Jesus
Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, I pray
that You would open our eyes and set our gaze upon this glorious
Christ, that we would put...put away trite and trivial thoughts
of Christ tonight. I pray that we would behold something
of His infinite holiness, His absolute sovereignty, His penetrating
omniscience, His burning righteousness, the thunder and the roar of His
voice. Father, we who are held by His
right hand as seven stars, Lord, I pray that we would shine forth
the light of Your Word as never before in our ministries, that
we would commit ourselves to the preaching and the teaching
of the Word of God and the loving of Your people in ways that would
exceed what we have yet to this point. Lord, I pray that out
of this vast house of worship here tonight, that You would
raise up a new generation of bold, biblical preachers of the
Word of God who fear You, who fear sin in their own life, but
who are bold and courageous as they lead Your church in this
hour. Lord, I pray that Your face that
shines brighter than the sun would shine upon us tonight and
that within our own hearts and souls we would be overwhelmed
at the majesty and the transcendence and the glory that belongs to
You alone. Lay Your hand upon us as You
did, John, on Patmos. Speak words of encouragement
to us tonight. Lord, we need to be raised up. We need to be affirmed by You. We need to be strengthened by
Your grace. Speak to us yet again and say
to us, You are the first and the last, how our hearts are
made strong as we consider the greatness of Your Son, Jesus
Christ. So Father, may this vision dominate
our lives tonight and I pray that You will etch this into
our soul in a very lasting way and that we will serve You as
those who have been subdued by the awesome glory of who You
are. Father, we pray this in the name
of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.