"Jesus Shows Himself Perfect Toward His Church" – Revelation 1:8-20 On the island of Patmos, banished for preaching the gospel, John receives the most striking revelation of the New Testament: in a moment of pain, of punishment, of isolation and of rejection. And there we see Jesus letting Himself be seen in how majestic, glorious and perfect He is in holiness and in justice, showing Himself so in His dealings with His church. He is no longer the one on the cross: He is the God and Lord of the church and of all creation. And yet we make Him small, and we live in fear.
I. John, who received the revelation.
A. John was a young man when he came to know Jesus.
1. He is the one who was beside Jesus, and who at the Last Supper was leaning on Him.
2. It is said he would have been fifteen to twenty years old; a young lad, the age of our own young people.
3. The last thing he expected at that moment was that they would crucify Jesus.
4. It would be remarkable for someone of that age to have a conviction as strong as John's.
5. He knew Him three years; and to him was entrusted the mother of Jesus, while he was still a lad.
B. The revelation came in banishment.
1. After the death of Jesus he went on spreading the gospel as far as he could.
2. It is thought he died at ninety or ninety-one, and that he had the revelation five or ten years before.
3. He was imprisoned on the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel; a place of banishment where people were sent as punishment.
4. John lived the whole book of Revelation on that island: the greatest revelation that could have been.
5. In a moment of pain, of punishment, of isolation and of rejection.
C. What does God want to reveal in the deep moments?
1. Sometimes we think: why do we live through such hard moments, of rejection and of so many troubles?
2. We must see what God wants to reveal to us in those moments.
3. But we see them as a burden and a struggle, and all we want is to get out of them instead of learning what we ought to learn.
II. How majestic, glorious and perfect He shows Himself.
A. Many believers do not see Him so.
1. Most, on being converted, feel that what they will now live is a burden, because they must give up this and that.
2. Instead of feeling that what has happened in their life is the greatest thing that could have happened.
3. The greatest thing is not winning the million, nor having a good house, nor a new car; all that is passing.
4. The only thing that can truly fill a human being is God.
5. On this earth there is nothing perfect; but we idealize things and say that the perfect thing would be this and that.
B. We do not look at Him with the respect and fear He deserves.
1. Christians are always belittled: do not say that, because he is a Christian.
2. Those of us who have faith but live as unbelievers make the onlookers think that of us.
3. And then we are the little ones before others. That is not reality, but it is what the world has wanted to plant before our eyes.
4. We come to church, we repent, we weep, and we live half yes and half no: today I give and tomorrow I do not, today I come and tomorrow I do not feel like it.
5. That is a false way of looking at Jesus: we have not known who Jesus is.
C. He has already done it all.
1. He already went to the cross, they already spat on Him, mocked Him, despised Him; He bore the punishment of all mankind.
2. We must not fail to set our eyes on Jesus on the cross for me. What have I to give Him?
3. The one great thing a person can have on earth, a talent, He Himself gave you; out of us comes nothing at all.
4. Before Him, no one; and after Him, absolutely no one: He is the first and the last.
5. But today we shrink His name and make Him small; telling another to have faith is easy, but when it comes to us, we doubt.
6. He conquered death, and we go on seeing Him as though still crucified; He is no longer on the cross, He is at the right hand of the Father, exalted.
III. What Jesus requires of His church.
A. A church alight.
1. The candlesticks mentioned are lit, they are burning.
2. Jesus wants a church that shines, not one dark in spirit.
B. A church faithful and reverent.
1. For Jesus is not only a friend: He is the glorified Lord.
2. That is why John falls as dead when he sees Him.
C. A church without fear.
1. The first thing He says is: fear not.
2. He wants a church that trusts even when it lives in difficult times.
3. And that is what we most are: fearful; everything frightens us, everything worries us, everything unsettles us.
4. We do not know that we have the glorified Christ on our side; and we make Him small.
D. A church under His authority and near to Him.
1. The sword out of His mouth is the word: the church must align with what He says, not with what the world says.
2. He walks in the midst of the candlesticks; He is not far from the church.
3. He wants a church conscious of His presence, not one that comes only to sit and listen.
4. We live so much by routine: we come, we sit, we listen, we leave and go on the same.
5. Every time we come we must advance a step in our lives; not go back five.
IV. Your companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:9).
A. There are tribulations for those who follow the Lord.
1. Of course there are; and why? So that God may be glorified.
2. Is the road all roses? No; but that is why Jesus is there.
3. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24:13).
4. Hundreds of stumblings will come; every day there is something new.
5. We may spend a hundred years serving without failing, and if we fall at the end, none of it counted.
B. The road to the kingdom is the road of endurance.
1. In this Christian life there are struggles, wars, battles, agonies and complaints.
2. It is not a life of prizes in the earthly manner: the prize comes as we bear up and persevere faithful.
3. The struggle with the children, with the mother, with the father, with the spouse, at work, with the neighbour, and with oneself.
4. And we live shut up in that, as though we could not get it out of our minds.
5. It is to bear always, to fight always, to resist evil always; there is no other way.
6. That endurance is found in Christ, who is in you; but if we do not pray nor know the word, it is hard for Him to be the one in our mind.
C. Our troubles beside John's.
1. John was sentenced to banishment for his unbreakable loyalty to the word and his insistence on preaching.
2. What was John to eat? What bed could he have? There would be cold, there would be heat, the salt air of the island.
3. Our troubles, which to us are the greatest in the world, are small beside that.
4. It is not to belittle them, for everyone has great troubles; but let us not bury ourselves in them.
V. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
A. On the island, John was in the Spirit.
1. And we, in our troubles and great difficulties: are we in the Spirit or in the flesh?
2. If one is going to be in the flesh, what takes hold is fear and dread.
3. And someone comes and tells you the same thing happened to his mother and she died the next day, and you begin to be afraid.
4. To be able to hear, one must live in the Spirit.
B. And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.
1. The voice of the Lord sounded with the unmistakable clearness of a trumpet blast.
2. Picture John on that island, with his back turned, and suddenly that voice behind him; every hair must have stood up.
3. Write in a book what thou seest, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.
4. John was under human punishment, but he was in the Spirit.
5. However hard life is and whatever is happening, it is always possible to be in the Spirit.
VI. The seven churches.
A. They truly existed and they represent something larger.
1. We know them; Paul and others preached there.
2. But each one represents a different spiritual condition.
3. They represent the struggle of a body and of a family of faith, and the troubles among us.
B. One by one.
1. Ephesus had very correct doctrine, but lost its first love; so it happens when we obey like robots and the love that moved us grows cold.
2. Smyrna was much persecuted, yet was always faithful; here too there are faithful people who feel persecution at work or in their family.
3. Pergamos was compromised with the world; sometimes we compromise greatly with the world.
4. Thyatira tolerated false teachings: alongside the right word there were teachings taken from this world.
5. Sardis had a name that it lived, but was dead spiritually; we seem alive and are dead within.
6. Philadelphia was faithful and persevering; and Laodicea was lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. And the worst is to be lukewarm, for those God spues out.
C. The same struggle from the first century until today.
1. That is why Jesus says: write it in a book, because this will remain for eternity.
2. For the same struggle those churches had is the same the church has today.
3. It stands for the whole church, every possible condition, from the first century to the twenty-first.
4. Human beings the same: today yes and tomorrow no. Let us open our eyes and see that we waste time in this race.
VII. Clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about with a golden girdle (Revelation 1:13).
A. John turned and saw the Son of Man.
1. He turned because the voice surprised him, for his back was turned.
2. He saw seven candlesticks, and in their midst one like unto the Son of Man.
3. The one he sees is Jesus Christ Himself.
B. It is the garment of the high priest.
1. It is in Exodus 28:4, Exodus 29:5 and Leviticus 16:4, where the garments of the high priests are described; the first was Aaron.
2. Through the high priest there was access to God: he opened the way for other men to draw near.
3. Jesus wears that garment because without Him we could not present ourselves before God.
4. In the tabernacle of Moses only the high priest could carry the incense to the altar.
5. And that great high priest was our Jesus: He opened the way of men into the presence of God.
C. The garment of the risen Christ means royalty.
1. He was no longer a criminal on a cross, as His own people treated Him: now He was clothed as King.
2. It is the garment of the messenger of God: Jesus presents Himself as the supreme messenger, who brings the truth of God.
3. The one who lets us enter the presence of God and who has received from God the power and dominion for ever.
4. Consider before whom you come to humble yourself and whom you serve: we do not serve an image, we serve the living God.
VIII. His hairs white, his eyes as a flame of fire, his feet like fine brass (Revelation 1:14-15).
A. His head and his hairs were white like wool.
1. John saw Him as the Ancient of days, of great age, in the eternal existence of Jesus Christ.
2. For Jesus came to the earth, but He has always been; He is eternal.
3. And that whiteness is His spotless purity.
4. Daniel saw Him the same, centuries before: his garment white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool (Daniel 7:9).
B. His voice as the sound of many waters.
1. Ezekiel also heard that voice: his voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory (Ezekiel 43:2).
2. Picture the sea in all its splendour.
3. We must tremble at His voice; He is love, and we weep before Him and He embraces us, but His voice is as the sound of many waters.
C. His eyes as a flame of fire.
1. He sees everything and judges everything; He passes everything through the flame of His eyes.
2. Jesus is love and is ready for us; but He judges things with eyes of fire.
3. We must take care and look at how we are living.
D. His feet like fine brass.
1. They were no longer on the earth: they were polished and shining.
2. Brass represents the strength and stability of God.
3. The shining represents the swiftness and readiness of God to come to the aid of His own, or to punish sin.
4. So swift are they to come out for us; and so swift also to punish sin. Let us not feign ignorance.
5. The one John saw is Immanuel, God with us, who took the place of Messiah and Redeemer and is now all God.
IX. He had in his right hand seven stars.
A. Our Lord carries everything in Himself.
1. The seven stars represent the leaders, the pastors of the seven churches, and He carries them in His hand.
2. He was among the seven candlesticks, which are the seven churches; and the stars are the seven messengers.
3. So He has everything under His control, and He keeps us.
B. His hands uphold and wipe away.
1. The hand of Christ is strong enough to uphold the heavens and gentle enough to wipe away our tears.
2. He upholds the heavens, He upholds this world, He upholds the galaxies, and carries it all in His hands.
3. And those same hands wipe away our tears: one sheds a single tear and He is there to wipe it.
4. Let us see whether we are in His hands or under His feet of authority. Let us fear, and look at where we stand.
X. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead (Revelation 1:17-18).
A. He does not show Himself as the Jesus of Galilee.
1. He does not appear as the Jesus who fished, who healed, who set free and who had compassion when He first came.
2. John saw Him healing, freeing the demon-possessed, opening blind eyes and raising the paralytic.
3. He saw Him fasting and saw Him go up the mountain to pray when His death drew near.
4. And at the end of his years he sees Him in the most striking revelation: before His church with all the authority of God.
5. No longer as the one on the cross, but as the God and Lord of the church and of all creation.
B. I am the first and the last.
1. This is the description God gives of Himself.
2. So He revealed Himself to Isaiah: I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God (Isaiah 44:6; 48:12).
3. In the New Testament and in the Old it is the same: the same great and mighty God.
C. And I am he that liveth, and have the keys of hell and of death.
1. It is the same living God of the days of Joshua, who drove out all their enemies (Joshua 3:10).
2. In those three days that He lay dead, He went and fought, and took the keys to set us free.
3. So that we might go to heaven together with Him.
4. The Lord Jesus rules everything; no one is above Him.
XI. Do not serve another as though he were God.
A. That glorious Jesus became one of us.
1. A plain mortal man, His body bleeding and thorns driven into His head.
2. So that today we might believe in Him and one day be with Him.
B. We end up serving other gods without noticing.
1. We give our lives in service to other people as though they were gods: to work, to relatives, to illness.
2. We leave Him aside and our god becomes our work and what I have to get done.
3. Let us see what we are giving all the value and all the importance to.
4. Let us not live deceived, thinking we serve God when in truth we serve another god.
C. He lives watching over the church.
1. So take care where and how we move: however you are and wherever you are, the Lord will look at you as church.
2. And He will come to a conclusion about you; He looks at everything and He sees everything.
3. And then He will deal with you as He knows best how to do it.
4. The best thing for each one of us is to love Him and to fear Him.
Christian Church Mega Zoé · Pastor Edermira Cruz
Leer en español →