Today on Standing on the Word. Well, these eyes are terrifying. You say, why are they terrifying? Because it shows us that Jesus sees everything. Oh, somebody here today should say, oh, me. There's nothing that gets beyond or away from the gaze of Christ. He sees your hearts. Understand that today. You're listening to Standing in the Gap, standing for truth in a fallen world. Welcome to Standing in the Gap, Standing on the Word, a verse-by-verse study of the Bible and the powerful truths that are revealed through God's Holy Word. I'm your host, Mike Cross. Today we'll hear from Josh Tompkins, who is pastor and Bible teacher at West End Baptist Church. And now from his sermon titled, A Vision of the Resurrected Christ, here's Josh. This is the unveiling of Christ, the uncovering of Christ. And from chapter 1, we finished it. We're in chapter 22 on Sunday nights. And from chapter 1 all the way to chapter 22, it's just vision after vision after vision of Christ. It's a magnifying, is what it is, of Jesus Christ. I said this on Wednesday night, I want to say it in the introduction. That's our whole goal. That's why I'm here in Revelation 1 this morning. It's because I want to magnify Jesus Christ. My granny used to have a big magnifying glass in her house. I mean, this thing was humongous. And she used it to read her Bible. As her eyes got worse, she needed to be able to read her Bible. And what the magnifying glass does is it helps you to see things bigger than it actually is. And we say that word magnify. What I want to do today is I want to see Jesus in a magnifying way. I want your eyes to be on Him. For you young people that don't use magnifying glasses, you do this. You zoom in on it, right? That's what my kids do. They'll look at an actual picture and try to zoom in on it. I want to zoom in on Jesus today. I want our eyes to be on Him. I want your focus to be on Him. I want you to see Him, again, in a way that you've never seen Him before. I want you to see Him in Revelation 1. So let's stand together. And I want to read verses 9-18. And we stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God. And I titled this sermon, A Vision of the Resurrected Christ. A Vision of the Resurrected Christ. And again, you're going to see Him like you've never seen Him before. So starting in verse 9, I want to read through verse 18, and this text will give us a higher view of Christ. It's like this text is just zooming in on Jesus. That's what we want to do. Starting in verse 9, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and in the patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest, write in a book, and send unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I, the being John, turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of seven candlesticks, there was one like unto the Son of Man, And he was clothed with a garment down to his foot, and girt about with a paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes, John's looking into his eyes. were like a flame of fire. And his feet, and he's going from head to toe here, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burn in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun that shineth in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys. of hell and of death. What a wonderful passage for us to study today, and we will go verse by verse through it as we see this and hear the words of the vision of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Let's pray together and then we'll get started. Father, we thank You for this vision. I believe our understanding of Christ is incomplete unless we see Him in His resurrected, glorified form. So God, we need to see this today. We need to see Christ in a way that we may have never seen Him before. So God, show us a vision of Christ, of Your Son. Let us see Him. Let us magnify Him. Let us zoom in on Him. Let us take this time today to see Him, not as He was, but as He is right now. If Jesus was with us here today, this would be what He looks like. We want to see Him. We want to honor Him. We want to take our view of Him to heights they've never been before. We want to see Him as He is. Show us your Son. Help me, Father, please, to glorify Him, to be clear about Him. Help us, God, to see Him. We ask and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. If I ask you that question just as the outset of the sermon, when you think about Jesus Christ, and we all believe in Christ here today. You wouldn't be here on Easter Sunday if you didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So you have an idea in your mind of what He looks like. There are pictures everywhere. There's pictures in this church. They're downstairs. You've seen movies. You've seen the Passion of the Cross. You know that in your mind right now, as I'm talking about Jesus, you have an idea of what He looks like. Whether that's right or whether that's wrong, you have an idea. We all do. We all, in our minds right now, have a picture. When you think about Cross, this picture automatically comes to your mind. It may be. I don't know what your view is. Your picture in your mind right now may be the baby in the manger. You may love the picture of the Christmas Jesus. That He came and He was born of a virgin. He was laid in a manger. And you love the Christmas scene. I love it too. I love the baby in the manger that He is now God with us in flesh. It's a great picture. You may have the vision of Christ as a miracle-working Jesus. I love that one too. I love the idea of Jesus standing at the grave of Lazarus and saying, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus, who'd been dead for four days, all of a sudden comes walking out of the tomb. Don't you love that miracle-working Jesus? We love that one. I love the miracle-working Jesus where he takes mud and puts it, and it's not on top of the eyes, it's in the eyes of a blind woman. And the sight comes back immediately. That's a marvelous picture of Christ. Miracle-working Jesus. I love the walking on water Jesus. I love the storm calming Jesus. And you're thinking about Him in your mind as I'm saying this. I love the preaching Jesus. I'm a preacher. God had one Son and He made Him a preacher. I love the preaching Jesus. Matthew 5, standing up in the multitude and I imagine Him with a loud voice saying, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, I love the preaching Jesus. I love the praying Jesus. I've seen pictures of Jesus in the garden praying. John 17, you see, I'm interceding on our behalf, talking to the Father in heaven. I love the praying Jesus. I love the crucified Jesus. I love the Good Friday Jesus. The Jesus who went to the cross to bear my sins. The Jesus who was crucified and crushed for my iniquities. I love the crucified Jesus. I love the buried Jesus. We talk about that on Saturday. The silence of Saturday as Jesus who died upon the cross and went into the tomb and was there for three days. I love the buried Jesus. I love the resurrected Jesus that we celebrate today. That he was in the grave, but he's not in the grave anymore. He is resurrected and he's alive today and alive forevermore. I love the resurrected Jesus. I love the door knocking Jesus. Have you ever seen that picture where there's a big wooden door and Jesus is on the outside of it and he's knocking at the door and you have to come to the door and answer that door and let him into your life? Those are all great Jesuses. I love those pictures. And you love those pictures. You ought to. I love going through it. And we need to have, if we're going to have 20-20 vision, we have one eye on that Jesus as he was. But we also need the other eye on Jesus as he is today. And that's the Jesus that we see in Revelation 1 here that most don't see. And it's an incomplete view of Christ. You may see him as he was with this eye, but you're totally missing who he is and what he's like today. We need an eye here, not just on who He was, but who He is right now. We need the full view of Christ. And that's what this passage will do for us today. It shows us not the crucified, not the buried, but the resurrected, the glorified, the raised, the one that has all authority in heaven and in earth. This is the resurrected Jesus that we see here. This is Christ as we've never seen Him before. And I want to show you in Revelation 1, as we get into the passage today, I want you to see what's going on in verse 9. Look at it with me. As John here, he's a criminal. Let me just give you some context. I think some of you know this. This book was written in about 95 AD. And John the Revelator, the one who's writing this, is 95 years old. He's an old man. And he's a criminal, and he's an outcast to an island called Patmos. It's a prison island. If you're thinking about what the island is, it's very small. It's almost like Alcatraz, where you send all your prisoners there, and they can't get away, and they're not supposed to be able to get away. They'd have to swim to shore to get away. And so that's where he's at. And it's a terrible condition. This is not a resort that he's at. John is on this island. He's in chains. He has no food. He's not sleeping. He's in a cave. It's a labor camp full of rocks. So during the day, he's going to be busting rocks all day long with sledgehammers and working as a 95-year-old man. It's a rock quarry. It's not a pretty picture at all. In his crime, you say, why is John, the apostle, the one who wrote the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and Revelation, why is he locked up on an island? What's going on there? He says here in verse 9, what's going on? I want you to see there in your Bible. Why is he there? It says, verse 9, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on that island that's called Patmos. Why? for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He's been arrested for his unshakable loyalty to Christ. That they would look at him and say, refuse Jesus or go to jail. Christianity is illegal. 40,000 Christians in this time have been slaughtered by the emperor of Rome. All of John's friends have been killed. Jerusalem has been destroyed. The church is in trouble. And here John is. And it's not what he expected 50 years ago when Jesus was resurrected. He thought the kingdom was going to come. And 50 years later, he's on an island crushing rocks as a 95-year-old man. He's sitting there thinking, what's going on? All my friends are gone. The church is in trouble. Jerusalem's been destroyed. What's coming of us? It's the lowest of lows. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest, he's at a negative 10 here. And what does he need? More than anything else, what's the need of the hour? I think it's the need of the hour for us today. Our world is at an all-time low. It's as dark as it's ever been. And we look around and we see the church is struggling. We see the nation in turmoil. We see the world falling apart all around us. And what do we need more than anything else? We need a vision of the glorified, resurrected Jesus Christ. That's what the church needs today, more than anything else. We don't need more money. We don't need bigger crowds. I like having more people. That's wonderful. I like all those things that we can have, but more than anything else, the church needs to see, Christians need to see Jesus as he is. Standing victorious, standing glorious, standing resurrected, we need a vision of Jesus Christ. And that's what he says here. Verse 10, I was on the Spirit of the Lord's day. It's Sunday, worship day. And I was in the Spirit. This is something supernatural happening here that the Holy Spirit is taking John to another realm and letting him see things that normally we can't see. And what does he see? He sees Jesus Christ. Not as he was, but as he is. Enthroned, sovereign Lord of over all, ruling and reigning, and this is exactly what He needed. It's what He needed. It's what the church throughout the ages have needed. Anytime we think that we're going to lose, that times are too bad and things are too dark, we ought to turn back to Revelation 1 and see Jesus and be reminded we're not the losers in this battle. And that's what he sees here. He sees Jesus in all of his glory. In the darkness of our world, in the darkness of our lives, we need to see the resurrected Christ. We need an Easter Sunday to know that the world is in chaos that's in the hands of a living Savior. So let's see this vision today. I want you guys to go with me. I'm going to take up my full hour today. Believe me, some people look at me and say, you know, it's Easter. Give them a break. No, I should go for an hour and a half today. Don't put it past me. I don't have a service tonight. We might go two hours. You know what? We could get caught up in this vision of Christ and lose total track of time. I did it this week as I was studying it. I just couldn't get enough of it. So I want you to follow with me. I want you to see first of all, and we're going to look at starting in verse 11, I want you to see number one. And we do points here. You guys that don't know this, I do points in my sermons, and they build on each other as we go through the passage. All of those points is going to come straight from this passage in front of us. So point number one, if you take notes, and I love note takers, point number one is the activity of Christ. What is Christ doing right now? What is Christ up to in the world today? People ask that all the time. What is He doing? Here's what He's doing in the world today. Look at it with me. The first thing he's doing is he's speaking to the church. You see this? He says, and John says in verse 10, I was in the spirit in the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. So he hears a great voice, and I like this, that great voice. It's not just a normal voice. This is not a whisper. This is not a monotone. When Jesus shows up to speak to his church, he's not boring. He's not quiet. He's not silent. He's not sitting there saying, what did he say? When Jesus speaks, Jesus speaks with authority and power and it's a great voice. Later on in this passage, it says it's like a waterfall, a rushing water that just overflows, any other noise. It's like my oldest boy, Isaiah, when he talks, he talks loud. I'm all the time, and Seth would tell you, we're all the time telling him, here's ten, you need to bring your noise down to about a five. And Jesus here isn't at a 10, he's not at a 5, he's not at a 1. This voice that he's speaking with to the church is like level 100. The decimals are so loud that if you're not listening, it might deafen you. When Jesus speaks, he speaks with authority and power. Look at that great voice, like a trumpet. It's like a wake-up call. John, get up! Listen to what I'm saying. When the Word of God goes out of the church, our ears are listening to what He's saying. And he hears this voice, and it says, I love it, saying, look at verse 11. What does he say? I'm alpha and omega, the first and the last. You say, what does that mean? I want to get into it a little bit later on, but let me just say this. Jesus is telling him, I am the first, alpha being the first letter, omega being the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And he's saying, I am the first, and I am the last. I am the alpha and the omega. I am the beginning, and I am the end. I get the first word. And I get the last word. You ever been fighting with somebody and you look at them and say, I get the first word? And they say, well, I'll get the last word. I always try to get the last word in, you know. I'll be turning around, walking away from stuff, and I'll just jab one more word in. And Jesus in his church gets the first word, he gets the last word, and he gets every word in between. When Jesus speaks, we sit silent and listen to what he says. I got all the words. And he says what, look at verse 11. I'm Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest, this vision that I'm gonna give you, he's saying I've got something to say and I want you to listen. Write this down. This is so important. I think Jesus is looking at John saying, I love note takers. Write down what I'm gonna tell you here. And look what he says. What thou seest, you see there, you can underline it, write it in a book. And send it to the seven churches. And these are seven literal churches. The churches don't get a vision. They get a book. Just like the church today. We don't get visions. We get a book. Write this down and send it to the seven churches. And he names the seven churches there. The actual churches. So this is what he's saying in that verse 11. The head of the church has something to say to his church. Listen up. Jesus has something to say to us. John, write it down and send it to them. Jesus is speaking to the church. And I'm going to get through this. But Jesus today speaks to the church. That's what he's doing today, is he speaks to the church. The resurrected Christ speaks to his church. He still speaks to us, and it's not, I love this, it's not in a still small voice, it's not a whisper, it's not us sitting there trying to tune our ears in so we can hear what Jesus is saying to us. No, no, no, no, he still speaks. He speaks with authority and power on every issue of our life, and he does it through the written word of God. That's how He speaks to His church today. On every issue of your life, He speaks to it. There's not an issue that any of you here today will face that Jesus is not speaking to that issue in His Word. He speaks with authority. He speaks with power. He speaks loud. And He speaks clear. We don't need to tune our ears in and try to listen to what He's saying. We need to open up His book and listen to what He's already said. That's how he speaks to his church. Open up the Bible and let it loose. Trumpet it out again. Sound out the voice of Christ through his word. Don't close the book. Open the book and let it go. We need this voice. We need the voice of Christ to drown out all other opinions again today. I don't care what Fox News says. I don't know what Christ says. I don't care what CNN says. I want to know what Christ says. I tell people this all the time. I don't care what your mommy and daddy says. I want to know what Christ says. Oh, Josh is talking about my mom and dad. Your mom and dad's opinion. Jesus's words. Christ still speaks to his church today. The second thing that he's doing in his activity is he's standing, I love this, he's standing in the church. You see that? John in verse 12 says, I turned to see the voice that spake with me. John wanted to see who it was. He heard the voice. It was like a trumpet, very loud. And now he turns to see who it is. And he sees, you see that verse 12? To see the voice that spake with me and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, you say, what's the seven candlesticks? I don't want to get into a whole lot of detail with you on it, but verse 20 tells us what the seven golden candlesticks are. If your eye wants to move down to verse 20, it says, and here's the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks that thou sawest are the seven churches. So those candlesticks are the churches. Verse 13, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, standing in the midst of the candlesticks is one like unto the son of man. Jesus is standing in the church. within the church, in the midst of the church. Understand how important that is to them. Jesus has not abandoned His church. Jesus is not absent from church. He's not lost control of the church. He is in the midst of the church, exactly as He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, but I'll go with you all the way. I am in the midst of my church. I will not leave you like orphans. I'm not going to go away into heaven looking down upon you, but I will be walking in the midst of my church. You say, how does that apply today? I believe that Jesus is extraordinarily present with His church today. I believe He walks through the pews of the church today. I believe His Spirit is with us today. I believe Jesus loves His church and is with His church. You say, prove it. Revelation 2 and 3, He walks through His church. And he looks at his church, and you know what he does? This is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is right, and this is right. You're doing good, and you're doing bad. He walks through his church, correcting his church, disciplining his church, encouraging his church. Jesus loves his church. What's Jesus doing today? He's in his church, and he's speaking to his church. I love that. He walks through the pews of his church. He identifies with the church. He sits in on the church. He presides over as head of the church. You getting the theme here? His activity today is in the church. I'll give you another one. You want one more activity that he does? Then we'll move on. I'm thinking we may go an hour and a half today. Look what happens next. And I want you to move down and see this one, because John sees in his right hand. I love this one. Verse 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars. Do you see that there in verse 16? John looks in his hand and he's holding seven stars. And I've already told you what those seven stars are. I know you probably already forgot that. But look down at verse 20. Here's the mystery of the seven stars. which thou sawest in my right hand. And the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. You say he's holding angels? No, no, no, no. Turn over with me to Revelation 2.1. You see this? This is so, so good. Revelation 2.1, writing to the church in Ephesus, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus. The church doesn't have an angel, the church has a pastor. That word angel is messenger. Someone who stands up to present the message of God. He's talking here that He has in His right hand. I love this, maybe because I'm a pastor, but I love this that Jesus today has His pastors, His preachers, His messengers, His people, His church in His right hand. he's holding us right now and john thought all things were out of control and he's sitting there saying no i've got the preachers not just the church but the preachers in my right hand i'm holding the them in my hand and nothing can pluck them out of my hand get this this is his right hand and he calls the stars nobody's ever called me a star before Jesus does. His people and His church are more valuable than any star in the sky. Do you get that? What does Jesus love more than anything else in this world? His church, His bride, the one He gave His life for. He's holding His church in His hand. Do you understand that? What's He doing today? Speaking to His church, standing in His church, and securing His church in His right hand. Do you get that? John thought the church was in trouble. John thought the world was in chaos and Jesus shows up and he says, I don't know, I don't just have the whole world in my hand. John, I've got you in my hand. To you today, if you are his, he's holding you in his right hand. I can illustrate this in a better way. I can be walking through a crowd With my little red-headed Emma, who's five years old, she is about yay high, about 30 pounds, and she is fosty. And you get her in a store, and she's taken off every which direction. And somebody can easily, she is the prettiest thing in the world, no offense to anybody else, but in this guy's eyes, there's no prettier. And I sit and look at her, and I say, I think everybody would want you. And she could go this way, and she could go that way, and she could go this way. And someone could easily snatch her away from me. So what do I do? I take my powerful right hand, and I grab her hand. And she can look up at me and know that nobody and nothing can touch her. John needed that, and we need that. No matter how bad the world may get, and Romans 8 says that, that nothing, I think it's John 10 maybe, nothing can snatch us from his hand. Whether it be Satan, he can't snatch us from his hand. The world and tribulation and trouble and sin and temptation, nothing can snatch us from his hand. He has us in his hand. Don't you love that the glorified, resurrected Jesus has us in his hand? Like I would have my little girl in my hand. That's a great truth. He has Ephesus in his hand. Get that. I'm gonna go through the seven churches. I don't have time to do it, but you guys already amen'd an hour and a half. There we go. See, somebody did. Don't take it up with me. Whoever said amen, find them. He has Revelation 2. He has Ephesus in his hand. Church is smearing him. He has it in his hand. The Church of Pergamos, he has it in his hand. The Church of Thyatira, he has it in his hand. The Church of Sardis, he has it in his hand. The Church of Philadelphia, he has it in his hand. The Church of Laodicea, he has it in his hand. The Church of West End Baptist in Big Stone Gap, Virginia on Easter Sunday in 2019, he has it in his hand. That's good truth. He secures the church. He will build his church. He will revive his church. He will refresh his church. He will awaken his church. He'll send his spirit to the church. Jesus has his church in his hand. That's good. He values the church. He secures the church. He controls the church. He cares for the church. You say, apply this to me now. I will. Jesus loves his church more than anything else in this world. Shouldn't you? You see this activity. You see how committed he is to the church, that he cares for it, that he loves it, that he died for it. Can you see his love for the church and still be half-hearted about the church? What is Jesus doing in the world? Find you a Bible-believing, Christ-exalting church, and you'll see what He's doing in the world. He speaks to His church. He stands in His church. He secures His church. That's His activity. But I know you didn't come for the activity, you came for the appearance. Point number two, we're making good time, especially for one hour and a half. Somebody is so nervous about that here. And they should be. Sweating more than I am out there. Oh man, one o'clock. We saw the activity of Christ, the resurrected Christ. Now I want you to see the appearance of Christ, what He looks like. Look what it says in verse 12, and I'm going to go down through here and show you these things. I want you to see it. It's a graphic appearance. It says, and it has John turn to see in verse 12, to see who spake with me, and being turned I saw the seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks there was one like unto the Son of Man. And then he gets into the details. And I love that he sees one liken of the Son of Man. He doesn't see a memorial. He doesn't see a statue. He's not visiting a graveyard. Every other religion in the world, in order to see their leader, they have to go to a graveyard. They have to see a statue. They have to see a memorial. You have to go to Mecca, somewhere, where there's a dead leader. But John doesn't have to go and see a dead man. He sees the Son of Man standing. He's alive. That's good. It needs an amen. It does. I don't beg for amens, but that deserves it. And what does he see? He sees an amazing, glorious, remarkable, magnificent, and radiant, radiant Christ. Look at it with me. Let's describe Him here. Our jaws should drop here. If I look out and I don't see your knees shaking, I didn't get it across. I told my kids this the other day. As I explain this, you could probably do a better job coloring this than I can explaining it. If there's kids here today, get out a bulletin and try to draw this. Look what it says. And I'll go through it very quickly. It won't take me just a second. First, he sees his clothes. And I love this. His clothes are not being gambled over anymore. They took his clothes off of him on the cross and they cast lots for him. I'll get his jacket. I'll get his belt. I'll get his shoes. And they sit there and cast lots over it, trying to take his clothes. That's not what's happening anymore. Look what it says. And I'll try to explain these things. Clothed with a garment, that's verse 13, down to the foot. The longer the robe, the greater the man. The longer the robe. When Isaiah and Isaiah 6 went into the throne room, he saw the robe that went out the back door. And his robe blowed up. That's a sign of greatness. I think it was Princess Diana, when she got married, her robe, her train of her gown, went all the way out the door. Isaiah 6 says that God's robe fills the temple. He had a golden sash across the chest, which is a sign of royalty. He is wearing now, not dirty clothes, not nasty clothes. He's wearing royal clothes. Clothes of dignity, clothes of honor, clothes of rank and nobility, because Jesus deserves to wear the very best. So there's His royal robes. I want you to see His holy head. And you guys are going to like these. His royal robes and now his holy head. Because after the clothes, he sees the clothes. And ain't that what we're doing right now? We look at each other and we kind of size each other up based on what we're wearing today. I don't care what you wear today. But that's what John's looking at. He's saying, OK, what's he wearing? He's got a robe down to his foot. He's got a golden sash that only royalty would wear. And it's down his chest. And next he looks at his head. Starts at the head. And look what he says about his head. His head in verse 14, and his hairs. We're white like wool and as white as snow. I can say this is two things. White hair means wisdom, which means I'm getting smarter by the day. If Jesus has white hair, then every day I'm becoming more and more like Christ. Whiter and whiter and whiter the older I get. Some of you out there, I won't say anything. Not just the wisdom of Christ, but the holiness. The wider it is, the more pure it is. And there's not a speck of darkness in His hair. His hair is white like wool and as pure as the snow. That's not how you see Jesus, is it? That's as He is now. Everything about Him is holy. His will is holy. His ways are holy. His word is holy. He never errs and He never makes a mistake. He is perfectly holy in heaven. Third, I want you to see not only his royal robes and his holy head, I want you to see his searching sights. And I want to spend just a few seconds here on the searching sight. It says his eyes are like fire. This is eyes that are penetrating. This is eyes that are like laser beams. These are eyes that are like spotlights. These are eyes that like, in the middle of the night, my little girl will pull out her phone and turn on the flashlight and it blinds you if it's right in your eyes. These are eyes that are like x-ray vision, that as John looks at him, his eyes are on fire, penetrating, gaze, looking down, and it's not looking at John, it's looking through John. Well, these eyes are terrifying. You say, why are they terrifying? Because it shows us that Jesus sees everything. Oh, somebody here today should say, oh, me. There's nothing that gets beyond or away from the gaze of Christ. He sees your heart. Understand that today. I can apply this with his fiery eyes. He sees into your life. Some of you here put on masks. You put on a facade. You may be a hypocrite, and you may put on an act that says, I'm more holy than what you really are. You can fool this guy. I don't have fiery eyes. You can't fool Christ. Through the mask, through the facade, directly into your heart, he sees your affections. He sees who you really are. He sees in your closets where you try to hide things. Oh, Jesus goes into the depths of the secret places. The Bible says there's no creature hidden, that everything is laid open and bare to Him to whom we answer to. Oh, me, right? You can't get away with anything. He sees it all. The secrets, the affections, the desires. He sees into your hearts, into your mind. He knows what you're thinking about right now. Oh, that's scary. Some of you sit there and say, an hour and a half. Oh, no. Jesus knows that. With His fiery eyes, He sees straight into your mind. He sees it. He knows what's on your search history, on your browser. Oh, my wife don't know that. My husband don't know that. Jesus, with His laser-like eyes, sees it all. Nothing gets away from Him. He sees into every church. I love that you don't have to read through it, but Revelation 2 and 3, what's the first thing He says to all these churches? I know your deeds. I know what's going on there. There's nothing that could be hidden from you. My parents used to do that. They'd send me out as a teenager, and I'd go out with my friends, and they'd look at me, and they'd say, I may not be there, but God sees everything you do. And there should be a little bit of this. Should there not? It's terrifying. He sees who we truly are. not who we pretend to be. And I like that, when other people can say, there's a comforting part of this, when other people think they know my motives and accuse me of things and not see who I really am, he knows. He knows my heart. Fourth, and I've only got six of these, so you can hang in. Six points within the points, right? We see not only His royal robes and His holy head and His searching sight, we see His fiery feet. Do you see that there? I mean, it's just right there in front of us. His eyes were as a flame of fire and verse 15, and His feet were like undefined brass as they burned in a furnace. You say, what does that mean? This is a picture of red-hot judgment. The feet were a picture of judgment. The feet were a picture of a king who would come to his defeated foe and would take his foot and put it upon his foe as a symbol of, I have defeated you. And Jesus now is showing his feet as a feat of judgment. That not only has he defeated death, hell, and the grave, but he today will stomp out all sin. He does it in His church. He will stomp out sin. It's like trying to put out a fire. He'll take His foot and just stomp it into the ground and it'll go away. And not only that, in judgment, in hell, He will stomp out sinners. That's a picture of His judgment. That's who He is today. People say, oh, Jesus is just so calm and so easy. There's no wrath or judgment in Him at all. See His fiery red feet? He will judge and stomp out all who are rebelling against Him. If you are in rebellion against this Jesus here today, in your sin, throwing your fist up at Him, He will stomp you out. There's no getting around it. That's who He is. Oh, you say, well, I like the baby Jesus. He don't have red feet. Number five. Not only his fiery feet, but his supernatural sound. I've already talked about his voice, but look what it says. And his voice was the sound of many waters, like Niagara Falls, the roar of the sea. deafening sound. Out of the mouth, it says, it goes on, out of the mouth, in verse 16, was like a sharp two-edged sword. I mean, that's how His Word does. Number one is it deafens all other noises. When He speaks, we listen. We don't hear the opinions of the world. We don't hear what the commentators have to say. We don't care what the universities say. We only want to know what Jesus says. And this noise, if you're ever next to a waterfall, you don't hear anything else. You're going to sit there and talk to your wife right beside you, and she's going to say, what do you think, huh? What? All you can hear is the waterfall. And when Jesus speaks in His church, all you can hear is His word. I don't want to hear anything else. People tell me, Josh, you need to calm down and be not as loud. I want to be as loud as a waterfall. I want to be louder than Facebook. I want to be louder than Twitter. I want to be louder than your friends and your teachers in the university. I want you to hear what Jesus is saying. When Jesus speaks, you know this, the world shakes. When Jesus says, the world is going to be created by the word of His mouth. And the heavens and the earth are formed. When Jesus speaks, the devil trembles. Do you get that? Satan trembles when Jesus speaks. And His word is not only like Niagara Falls, the roar of the seas, deafening, but it's like a sword. And it will pierce you. It'll pierce you. This isn't a dagger. This is a broad sword. It takes two hands to... And I like to think of it this way. He stands at the door of the church with a broad sword and defends the church against all people who would come against it. The sword will pierce. It'll defend. It'll fight. It'll protect. It's the words that come out that protect the church. Then lastly, His shining face. Do you see that? Verse 16 and His countenance. That's His face. We haven't seen His face yet, have we? Hair, robe, feet, sword coming out of His mouth that sounds like running waters in a waterfall. We've seen His eyes, but we've not seen His countenance. Moses asked to see the face of God, and he hid him behind the cleft of the rock. He said, no man shall see me and live. You can't see the face of God and live. And John looks up at the face of Christ. Oh, oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face. There to stand forever in His amazing grace. And he looks up and sees the face of Christ. And when he looks up, this is what it says. Look down with me at it. Oh, how marvelous. and His countenance was like the sun, shining in strength." And when it says it's shining like in strength, He's saying it's like 10,000 suns shining down upon Him. I can't look up at the sun and its strength for just a few seconds, can you? I got my eyes starting to get dots in them and I start seeing things and I'm thinking, oh no, I'm going blind just from looking at the sun. This is the sun in its strength. This is the sun in its greatest of glows. This is the sun in its infinite glory shining down. And he says he looks up on his face and he can't take it anymore and it's just burning his eyes. That's how glorious Jesus is. And he was a walk in here today and we saw him as he is today. The sight of him would blind us. I heard a preacher the other day say, oh, I saw Jesus, a vision of Jesus. In my mind, I didn't say this out loud, if you still have vision, you didn't see Jesus. When Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus, what happened to Paul? He was knocked off his high horse and went blind for days. This is Jesus. This is who He is. And what did John do? I don't think you guys love this as much as I do, but watch what happens. I'm not even in the main point yet. An hour and a half is going to be probably the case. But look what John does. I told you we can get caught up in this. I actually put in my notes, hurry. Look what it says. Verse 17. And when I saw him and John knew him, John was in his inner circle. John was very familiar with Jesus. John ate with Him. John fished with Him. John, if you see Him in the upper room and you have that picture that everybody sees of the upper room, John is the one that's laying upon His breast. John is the one that's closest by. John knew Jesus probably better than anybody. John is as close as he could get. And what does John do here? He sees Jesus and he doesn't high-five Him. That's silly. It says he falls down like a dead man. He falls like cut timber. I mean, this wasn't a down to my knees, then over, and then lay. You know how you do that sometimes? This was timber. He collapses. It's too much for him. It's too intense. It almost kills John. To stand in the midst of the infinitely holy God is like an insect inside a furnace. This is a heart-pounding, knee-bending, jaw-dropping vision of Christ. John sees here what we miss, and I'm moving on. We've become too casual. We've become too careless. We've lost this vision, this towering, transcendent view of Christ, this awe-inspiring vision of Christ. Martin Luther was writing to Erasmus and they were having a debate back and forth in the 1500s and one of the first parts of the letter Luther wrote to Erasmus and said, Erasmus, your thoughts concerning God are too human. You say, what does that mean? Your thoughts concerning God are too lowly. They're not nearly high enough. You're not seeing Him as He is. You say, how do we know that? How do you know our thoughts of Christ aren't where they should be? Because we're not falling down on our faces anymore. We're not amazed anymore. We're not in awe anymore of who Jesus is. You sit there and you say, oh, who cares? Oh, it's no big deal. And you see flippancy all over the church. Silliness in the church. Now there should be a seriousness about Christ. When we see him as he is, and we all ought to fall down and say, whoa, it's me. He is so great and I am not at all. We've lost this in the church. We must be astonished and amazed again at Jesus. And I love this, as John is laying on his face, look what Jesus does, and I'll move on to the last point. I know, I'm hurrying. John is low. I think John is laying on the ground thinking, this is the end of me. I am toast here. Verse 17, and then Jesus took His, you see this? What hand did He take? His mighty, powerful, omnipotent right hand. The one in which He holds His church. And He takes that right hand and he places it, I mean, this mighty hand, and he places it on the filthy 95-year-old back of John. Do you get this? That's what He does for us. I am filthy. I am nasty. I am no good. I should be toast. I should be done. This should be the end of me. But Jesus took His mighty right hand and He put it on me and showed me great grace and great mercy. And the first thing that comes out of His mouth here is what? Look down at your Bibles. Don't be afraid. Exodus 33, Moses is doing the same thing, shaking in his boots, his sandals. And God says to him, I am a God of mercy, and I am a God of grace, and I am a God of love. You don't have anything to fear. And he puts his hand down on John and says, don't be afraid. Don't you love it when as a parent you do that to your kids? They're scared, have a bad dream. And that hand that holds them in the store is the same hand that comforts them at night. And you here today understand this. He has a hand in his church today saying you don't have to be scared. Why don't you have anything to be scared of? And this is the main point of the sermon. Look what he says. He gives an announcement here. We've seen his activity, we've seen his appearance, and I've got eight minutes to show you his announcement. Verse 17, When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, and he said unto me, Fear not. And here's why we don't have, and get this, we don't have anything in the world to be scared of. John, 95 years old, on an island by himself with prisoners, busting rocks. All of his friends are gone. The church is falling apart. Read Revelation 2 and 3. The churches are in turmoil. Don't be scared, John. And I don't know what's going on with your life today. I really have no idea. There's a lot of people here. I don't even know you. I don't know what's going on in your life. I don't know what's going on in your marriage. I don't know what's going on with your kids. I don't know what's going on at work or at school. I don't know. I can't know those things. But I can know that you have nothing to fear in life or in death because of what Jesus says here. You say, what does he say? I mean, I would write these things down. I would tattoo these things on my eyelids. We need to see this every time we blink. Look what it says. Fear not, for I am number one. I'm going to give you three statements he makes here. Number one, I am the first and I am the last, which means I am in control of it all. I am eternal. I started this thing and I will end this thing. And I am in control of everything in the middle. That's what he says, I'm the first and I'm the last. I started Genesis 1-1 and I'll end in Revelation 22. I started it and I'll end it. I created all things. I will end all things in Revelation. And I have all things in the middle taken care of as well. And what does that include? Everything in all of our lives is taken care of. What do I have to fear when my God is the first and the last and the alpha and the omega and the beginning and the end? He's got it all under control. What does that, what does that include? What does all include? I love all inclusive. It means everything's taken care of. That's pretty good. It's all under control. The end times are under control. That's revelation. And when life gets hard for you and me, guess what? It's all under control. I like that. The second statement that he gives, not only should we not fear because it's all under control, second, we shouldn't fear because he is alive forevermore. Look what it says. I love this. He says, first, I am he that liveth and was dead. I love that. He's saying I am the living one. I was dead. I was crucified. I was buried. I took on death. I took on the greatest foe that has ever been taken on. And I fought that great foe death with my hands tied to a cross. I took on death, and the grim was the battle and glorious was the victory. I took on death, I took on hell, I took on the grave, and I won! I was dead, but guess what? I'm alive again! That's great! He went toe-to-toe, head-to-head with death, and won. Anybody else here know somebody who's done that? I don't see any hands. Only one took on death and won. What do we have to fear? If you get sick, guess what? He lives. If he can defeat death, he can defeat sickness. You're sitting there today, you say, Satan's attacking me. Guess what? He lives. You sit there and say, I've got trials in my life. I've got a marriage situation and a kid situation and a financial situation. What is that situation in the face of what Jesus has overcome in his resurrection? He lives. And I like this. Behold, do you see that? Behold, I don't just live. I'm going to be alive forevermore. That's a phenomenal statement. There will never be a moment in time when he isn't alive. So that tells me there's no situation in your life that He can't overcome. What do we have to fear? How can we possibly fear anything in life or in death if Jesus is alive? Fear not, I'm in control of it all. Get this, I don't know if you guys are having as much fun as I am. It's Easter, we should be smiling. Fear not, church, I'm in control of it all from beginning to end. I am alive. I've overcome death. I'm alive forevermore. There will never be a time when I'm not alive. So everything that comes to your life, the first thing out of your mouth is, well, Jesus lives. On your deathbed, the first thing out of your mouth is, I can close my eyes in death and be confident and not fear. Why? Because Jesus lives. I mean, when Lazarus was in the grave and there's Mary and Martha, the first thing Jesus says to him is, I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe these things? Do you believe that? 1 Thessalonians 4, when they're sitting there worried about their loved ones in the tomb. He says, I have been risen. As Jesus is risen, they will rise. He is our hope. The resurrection is our hope, then, now, and forever. What do we possibly have to fear? You say, well, I fear death and hell. That's the third statement. Fear, he's saying don't fear. I've got three minutes, you guys hang in there. Three or 30, I don't know which one. I am in control of all things from beginning to end. Which means I have you in my hands. I'm in control. And not only that, but I'm alive forevermore. And I will never die. And number three, and I hold the keys. The guy who holds the keys holds the authority to everything. When I first became the pastor here, they handed me a ring of keys that was just full of keys. Here, pastor. And I sit there and I thought, that means I'm in control. I gotta lock the doors. I gotta open the doors. I'm the controller of the doors. And when Jesus come out of the grave, get this, he fought death, he fought hell, he fought the grave. And when he defeated death, hell, and the grave, and he, watch this, he stopped death, hell, and the grave. He'd come out and the keys to death, hell, and the grave was given to him. And now he holds them. And we look at that and I'll say this, I want you, nobody goes into the grave unless he opens the door. Nobody here will, that's John, John, nobody here will ever die unless Jesus who holds the keys opens the door and lets them die. That's good news for John. Don't fear death, it's in the sovereign plan of Almighty God. He has planned our death. There's an appointment unto death that we all have. It's appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. We all have an appointment. I don't know what your appointment is. You don't know. Death is not in the hands of a doctor. Death is not in the hands of cancer. Death is not in the hands of America or the government or terrorists. Death is not in the hands of the devil. The devil doesn't determine our death. Death is in the hands of the glorified, resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. If we go to the grave, it's because He opened the door. I love that. If I die, it'll be because He opened the door and let me die. I won't die until He's done with me, and then He'll open the door to the grave and let me in, and I'll lay there in my body. My spirit will go to be with Him, but my body will lay there, and one day in the future, He will reopen that grave, and up from the ground, all believers will rise. Don't you love that? Who has the keys? We have nothing to fear. Jesus holds the keys. Sometimes I have fun when I preach. You need that a little bit. You know what else he holds the keys to? Hell. He holds the keys to who gets into heaven. Peter ain't standing at the gate. I don't care what joke you want to tell. There's some good ones. There's some funny ones. They're all false. You know who holds the keys who gets into heaven? The Lord Jesus Christ holds the keys. I don't even hold the keys. I don't get to turn it. He holds the keys to death, to hell, to the grave, to heaven, because He overcame and is resurrected. And the keys have been given to Him. The kingdom has been given to him. He holds the keys. No one dies unless he unlocks the door. Nobody goes to heaven unless he unlocks the door. And one day again, believers will be let out because he unlocks the door. He gets the last word on death, hell, and heaven. He gets the last word on eternity. I love that. All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. So what in the world do you have to fear? Believers today, I just preached for an hour on Jesus. And you know what John says at the end of this? I ain't got nothing to be scared of. He's in complete control. He'll take care of it. Beginning and the end. The One who is alive and holds the keys is my Savior. And I look at you today and I say, what should our response be to this passage? Can you walk away from a passage like this unfazed? I can't. I can't. I can't see Him as He is and walk away and say, no, no, who cares? The gospel is too long. Let's go hunt some eggs. Let's go eat some ham. I can't. When I see this, him as he is, my first response is, for me as a believer, is to fall on my face as a dead man. My first response is to see this lofty view of Christ and to become so utterly amazed and astonished and in awe that I fall on my face and worship That's what they did in Matthew 28. They fell at His feet in worship. It's what Isaiah did in Isaiah 6. It's what Moses did in Exodus 33. It's what John does in Revelation 1. It's what John does in Revelation 22. John has a habit of... Some people say he likes to trip. I don't know. But over and over in Revelation, it's on his face. On his face. And you know what it should be with Christians who see this lofty view of Christ? On her face. On her face. On her face. That our worship would not necessarily be up here, but our worship would start here and bow down at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we need in churches today. We need more of this in our churches today. We need more seriousness in our churches today. We need more awe in our churches today. We need more Christians who are caught up in how great Jesus is and not how great the music is or the preacher is. Oh, how great and awesome our Savior is. We've magnified Him. We've zoomed in on Him. May we now fall at His feet and worship Him who is alive forevermore. That's what believers ought to do. Lost people. Get this, and I'll close. One day, if you're here today, there's no doubt that some of you in this room are unbelievers. You don't believe in Christ. You will stand face to face with this Savior. He will not be your Savior. He will be your judge. And you won't fight Him. You won't argue with Him. Your excuses for your sin will be drowned out by a voice that is like Niagara Falls. He will not hear what you say. Oh, you can say it to your parents. Oh, it was my friend's fault. Or it was this one, and it was this one, and I just, and all these excuses, and Jesus with a voice that is like a sword, and feet that are gonna judge, and He's not gonna hear anything you have to say. It's too late when you stand before this glorified Christ. You will stand and face Him one day, and He will see through you, and He will crush you. So the only answer today is that you bow at His feet. and surrender your life to Him. Today He reaches down in grace with His mighty right hand and gives you a chance. Do you see that? And if you don't do it today, one day He will crush you with His mighty right hand. Today He reaches out to you. He reaches out in grace. He says, you don't have to be scared. You can be saved today. You say, how do I do that? I want to read you one verse and I'm done. Romans, you don't have to turn there. Just listen, please listen. Romans 10. And I want to close. And we're going to open the altar for anyone who needs to believe in Christ. But look what it says. I want to read starting in verse 9. Let's start in verse 8. Romans 10. But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith. which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, then thou shalt be saved." Let me read that verse again. You say, how can I be right with that Jesus? How can I be right with Him? What must I do to be saved? that if thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, then you shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be and will be saved." So I urge you today, I beg you today, don't stand before this Jesus in judgment. Believe upon Him today and you will be saved today. What a day to be saved! Easter Sunday, to give your life to the glorified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. How glorious this picture was for us today. It was phenomenal. And I pray that I would forever have my eye, one on who He was and what He did, but another eye on who He is now. We need to see the full picture of Christ. And I pray that we've been able to give just a glimpse of this glory today to the ones here. And I pray for believers that this vision would cause us to worship, would cause us to bow down, would give us great comfort. But for the unbelievers here, I pray that it would cause them, by your Holy Spirit's power, to believe and to give their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, as we play a short song and we have a quiet time here for prayer, I pray that you would work in hearts in a way that only you can. I can't make anyone believe. I can't urge anyone to believe. Only you, by your Spirit, can do that work. So please do a work that only you can do. And we ask and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. What a glorifying message that was. And now joining with me today in the studio is Pastor Josh Tompkins. Josh, at the end of the first major section of Revelation, Jesus told John to fear not as He proclaimed three separate tenses that seem to emphasize Christ's life. What is Jesus wanting us to see in these two verses, and what assurances are the world provided with from them? Well, first of all, we see that Jesus is talking directly to the Apostle John in Revelation 1. And John is in a very dark and depraved world. His circumstances are terrible. He's on the island of Patmos. He's being persecuted. He's being imprisoned. He's there as a punishment for following Christ. That's the reason he's there. And I believe that correlates to the world we live in now. It's dark. It's depraved. Christians are still persecuted and looked down upon. There's a lot of things we don't understand. There's a lot of things we face that are bad. And the first thing he wants John to think, what he wants us to see, and to hear, he says, fear not. He doesn't want us to be afraid. He doesn't want us, and that's all throughout the New Testament, not just at the end in Revelation, but he wants us to not be afraid. And the reason we're not to be afraid is, like you said, those tenses that he gives in those two verses. He wants us to know that he is the first and the last. He wants us to see that he is the one who was and is and is to come. He's the eternal God. He wants us to see that he is alive right now, that he's not dead. He was the one who was dead, but he has been resurrected. And I like that last point, he's alive forevermore. He's assuring them that he is in complete control, that he is the one on his throne, that nothing happens in heaven or on earth without his sovereign authority. And he even reiterates that when he says, I hold the keys to death and Hades. I'm in control even of your death. You will not die until I say so. You will not come out of the grave until I say so. He's in control of all things. And that is really a comfort and an assurance to all Christians that in the midst of this world that we're living in, where it may not be as bad off as John, But all of our lives are a struggle. And in the midst of that, we want to know that there's one still on the throne and one still in control. And when we see that glorified, resurrected Christ, then we can, in the deepest part of our hearts and souls, fear not. THANKS, JOSH. 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