“The Glory of Christ”
Revelation 1:4-18
John T. Mabray, Pastor
Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Lynchburg, Virginia
December 26, 2004
8:30 and 11:00 AM
THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Our
great and glorious God, grant to us the grace we need; for without
Your Spirit’s enlightening power, our minds are dark, and our hearts
are hard, and our souls are cold. Send forth Your Holy Spirit, we
pray, into this place and into our lives as Your Word is proclaimed;
that we may no longer slumber in our sins nor wander in the
darkness, but walk in the Light of Salvation through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen.
THE READING OF
REVELATION 1:4-18
THE ASCRIPTION OF
PRAISE
Now to Him who loves us, who has freed us from our
sins by His blood, to Jesus Christ be all glory, power, praise, and
dominion, now and forever. Amen.
Throughout
the Advent and Christmas season, we have had lights on the Christmas
trees, lights on the houses, lights in the windows, lights on the
hedges — lights almost anywhere and everywhere we can manage to
string an electrical cord. But why? Is it just that lights are
pretty, and that we like to brighten things up a bit at
Christmastime?
There must
be more to it, and there is, at least for the Christian. The image
or metaphor of light is used throughout the Bible. Light symbolizes
knowledge, in contrast to the darkness of ignorance, and truth in
contrast to the darkness of lies. “The Word is a lamp to my feet,
and a light to my path” [Psalm 119:105]. Light symbolizes moral
purity and ethical righteousness, and even the holiness of God, as
stated in First John 1:5, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness
at all.”
Life itself
is symbolized by light, in contrast to the darkness of death. Jesus
said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life [John 8:12]; and so we
sing,
...hail the Sun (s-u-n) of
righteousness!
Light and life to all He
brings ... .”
Above all, the light of Christmas, the light of Jesus Christ, is the
light of the glory of God. Throughout the Bible, when the glory of
the LORD appears, it appears with great light. But throughout the
Bible, when the light of God’s glory appears, those who see it
tremble with fear; for it is a terrifying blaze of glory. When the
LORD came to Mount Sinai to give His law to Moses, the Scripture
says that “to the eyes of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the
glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top”
(Exodus 24:17). And, you may remember that when Moses came down from
Mount Sinai, his face was shining — beaming, glowing — with a mere
reflection, a mere residue of the glory of God, so much so that the
Israelites were afraid to come near Moses.
And when
the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, announcing Jesus’
birth, as the King James Version puts it, “...the glory of the Lord
shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.” His birth,
though lowly, was glazed with glory. And His ministry, though marked
by humility, also revealed His glory, by way of His miracles. But
the book of The Revelation gives us a special glimpse of the glory
of Christ.
The passage
we read is not a “futuristic” vision of Jesus, but a vision of Jesus
in His glory, now, at the Right Hand of God the Father. The Book of
The Revelation
gives us a picture of the divine perspective: Jesus Christ reigns in
glory over every power and authority on earth, “...and He shall
reign forever and ever.”
In the
opening verses which we read, John refers to Jesus as “the faithful
witness” — the One who was faithful unto death in His witness to the
Father, and who now in the presence of the Father is the faithful
witness on behalf of His people, standing as our Advocate before the
judgment seat of God. He is also called, “the first-born from the
dead” — our Covenant Head and leader in the victory over death. And
He is called “the ruler of the kings of the earth.” He is the
sovereign Lord, seated at the Right Hand of the Father Almighty,
“far above all rule and authority, power, and dominion, and above
every name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the
age to come” (Eph.1:21).
How
comforting it is, then, that John, by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, also reminds us that the glorious King of kings is also the
One “who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood ...
.” Indeed, it is a good thing that John reassures us here that the
glorious Christ is the One who loves His people; for the vision of
Christ which he describes is one that would undo us, were it not for
the reassurance of our Savior’s love.
In this
vision, in which the veil of earthly time and space was removed, and
in which John gazed into the throne-room of Heaven, John saw the
glory of Christ. By the Spirit, he wrote:
...
I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a
golden sash across His chest. His head and His hair were white as
wool, white as snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; His
feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in
a furnace; and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His
right hand He held seven stars, and from His mouth came a sharp,
two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in full
force. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man
[Rev.1:12-17].
This is the One who
was the baby born in Bethlehem: born in humility; risen from the
dead in victory, and seated on high in glory. The descriptive
language of the vision is intended to overwhelm us with a sense of
the power and majesty and glory of Jesus Christ. The flowing robe
and the golden sash show Him to be the great High Priest and King of
kings. His hair, white as snow, is not an indication of old age in
this fallen world, but rather of eternity in the realm of glory. His
eyes, like flaming fire, pierce and penetrate into the heart of
every human being, and there is nothing hidden from His sight, as
the Scripture says, “...before Him no creature is hidden, but all
are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the One to whom we must
render an account” [Hebrews 4:13]. His feet, glowing like burnished
bronze in the heat of the furnace, are symbols of Christ’s strong
and steady conquering march throughout the world and throughout
history, leading His people in spiritual victory as He crushes Satan
and his minions under His feet. His voice, like the sound of many
waters, roars over all other voices; and the two-edged sword in His
mouth is His holy Word, which pierces the soul and spirit, to slay
us with His truth that He might raise us up by His grace. And His
face “was like the sun shining with full force” — too bright to look
at directly, because it shines with the eternal glory of His divine
nature.
This is the
One who was the baby born in Bethlehem. And in the presence of His
glory, John — the beloved disciple, the one who had leaned upon
Jesus’ breast in closest friendship — fell down as a dead man. He
was terrified by the mysterium tremendum, the tremendous
mystery, the awe-full mystery, which causes us to tremble.
C.S. Lewis
wonderfully conveys this sense of holiness and glory in the story of
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. This illustration is
familiar to many of you, and I have used it in previous sermons but
it is well-worth hearing again. (And if you have not read The
Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and all of THE CHRONICLES OF
NARNIA by C.S. Lewis, I highly commend them to you).The story takes
place in the land of Narnia, which has fallen under the spell of the
wicked white witch, so that it is always winter, but never
Christmas. Four children — Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy — have
stumbled into Narnia. At this point, they are have a conversation
with two beavers (talking beavers) and learning about a great lion,
the Christ-figure, named Aslan.
“Who is Aslan?” asked Susan.
“Aslan?” said Mr. Beaver, “He’s the King ... He’ll
settle the White (Witch) all right .. He’ll put all to rights ... .”
... ...
“Ooh! said Susan ... Is he — quite safe? I shall feel
rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs.
Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their
knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then, he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs.
Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t
safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
At a later point,
when the children actually meet Aslan, the great lion representing
Christ, the story then continues with the author’s narration:
People who have been in Narnia sometimes think that a
thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children
had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried
to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden
mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and they found
they couldn’t look at him, and went all trembly.
Not safe .. but good. Good ... and terrible ... at the same time ... in
whose presence, we go all trembly. This is the Christ of glory, before
whom John fell down as a dead man.
The application of this
should be very clear to us. First of all, if there is anyone here who
thinks that Jesus Christ is just another religious figure alongside
others, or that Christ is someone not to be taken too seriously, or
someone who can be ignored, I implore you think again and to consider
the consequences of your unbelief and defiance. He cannot be ignored. We
will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, either as those who
have their sins forgiven and covered by His blood, or as those who have
rejected His mercy and have the guilt of His blood on our heads. Today
is the day to come to Christ in faith, by the grace of His Spirit, and
to submit yourself into His Lordship and enter into everlasting Kingdom.
Jesus said, “whoever comes to Me, I will in no way cast out.”
Secondly, those
of us who claim Christ as our Savior must always be mindful of who He is
in His eternal glory. He is worthy of our awe-filled, indeed,
fear-filled worship. If He appeared to us as He appeared to John, His
majestic splendor and holiness would cause us to quake and tremble and
fall at His feet as though dead. In His grace and in His mercy, He has
called us His “friends,” He has called us His own “brothers” and
“sisters.” And we should rejoice and marvel that He calls us His
friends, brothers, and sisters. But we must never take His grace and
mercy for granted. The idea that we could have a “casual” or “chummy”
relationship with the Lord of glory is, I think, a fools’ delusion.
Anything that trivializes our commitment to Jesus Christ or our worship
of Him is a step toward blasphemy. That includes our daily witness in
the world, our most basic relationships in our own families, and the
mental attitudes and physical postures and our whole approach in body
and soul whenever we engage in worship, prayer, the observance of the
Sacraments, the hearing of the Word preached, and the singing of His
praise.
There is no
lackluster worship in heaven; nor should there ever be on earth. When we
gather for worship on the Lord’s Day as commanded and appointed by Him,
we gather in the heavenly Zion with the angels and archangels and saints
triumphant around the throne; and if the veil were pulled away, we would
see Him as He is, as John saw Him. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,
as we prepare to begin a New Year, let us resolve to be humble before
Him, yet fervent in spirit, worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, as He
is worthy to be worshiped: joyfully, reverently, fervently, and with
awe: for our God is a consuming fire.
Thirdly, as we
prepare to enter the New Year — with all manner of bad or frightening
news on the horizon — let us resolve to trust in Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory, and to find our refuge and our security in Him alone. He is
the One who died and is alive forevermore; He is the One who has the
keys of death and hades. He is the One who is the Ruler of the kings of
the earth. And therefore, He alone is the One in whose hands and under
whose rule our lives and our eternal destiny are secure. Therefore it is
incumbent upon us who look to Him for salvation to pledge the full
allegiance of our lives to Him. Just as He is worthy of our worship, so
He is worthy of our witness. He is worthy of any suffering we might
endure in this world for His name’s sake. He is worthy of any
persecution, any hatred the world might throw at us, any rejection we
might suffer — whether from family members, acquaintances, or outright
enemies of the cross. He is worthy to receive every expense of our own
strength and honor for His Kingdom. He is worthy, infinitely, worthy,
that we should endure the loss of all things in order that we might come
to know Him more fully in the power of His resurrection. And He is
trustworthy, trustworthy to see to it that His good and faithful
servants shall not lose their reward.
This is no time
to be torn between Christ and the world; this is no time to be divided
in mind or heart or conscience. Today is the day to give our all to
Christ and our all for Christ; He is worthy of it, and can be trusted
with it! Time is slipping away. But eternity looms before us all. Time
and decay rush over us without relent; but eternal life in Jesus Christ
lies ever before us, if we will but walk in faith and follow Him.
And fourthly,
though we ought and must honor Jesus Christ with reverential fear, we
ought and must also find our complete comfort and security and peace in
Him. For, as John lay face down before Him, Christ in His glory placed
His right hand on John, saying, “Fear not!”
Does that sound
familiar? Those were the first words of the Christmas message which the
angel brought to the shepherds. “Fear not, for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy ... .” And now it is Jesus Himself, in glory, who
speaks the message of good news, “Fear not; I am the first and the last,
the living One. I was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” These
are the words of Him who was born in Bethlehem, wrapped in rags, laid in
a feed trough, and nailed to a tree ... for you, so that you might have
no fear. For now He reigns in glory, with power, might, and majesty, so
that with Him as our King,
with Him as our Light and our Life,
we need have no fear of darkness nor death.
Let us all, each one,
fall down before Him, entrusting ourselves to Him and committing
ourselves to live lives of joyful, awe-filled reverence in happy
obedience to His word, to the glory of His name, now and forever. Amen.
