Jesus like you have never seen Him before

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All right, good morning. Thank you so much for joining us today for our study in the book of Revelation. We are doing a series called The Clock is Ticking. We're working through this incredible book. For those of you that would like handouts for today's lesson or you want to know more about our ministry, go online to womensbiblestudy.com.

There you can get the handouts for today's lesson. You can get past lessons. You can catch up on what we're doing here. That would be great. Now, for the moment, we're doing something a little different. And this is going to all look different to you for the next 20 minutes.

Here's what you need to know. Last week we had some technical difficulties for the first 18 minutes and you weren't able to hear the sound the right way. So the plan was that I would come up here and I would redo the first 18 minutes wearing the same thing that I wore last week. and nobody would ever know the difference, but here's a couple of the problems.

My car is in the shop and my necklace that I wore last week is in my car. So in about 18 minutes, suddenly I'm going to have a necklace on and you're going to be like, what just happened? And then I'm also in different shoes today too. And it's raining in Phoenix. It's been raining for days.

So the thought of trying to get all of the props that we had last week up here on the stage seemed overwhelming. So I'm telling you this, and then in about 15 or 16 minutes, it'll click into last week's lesson. And you'll be good to go. But we're just re-taping this first section. So if I say anything funny, nobody is here to laugh. So just so you know that starting how we're going. All right.

Last week, we started talking about Revelation. We started in verse 1. I told you that the book of Revelation is from God to an angel and then to John, the Apostle John, who's banished on a small island, the island of Patmos, off of the Mediterranean Sea. of modern day Turkey. Last week we talked about how nothing would ever shake John's face. Like he loved Jesus that much that nothing was ever going to shake him away from his faith in Christ.

He knew from his experience from hanging out with Jesus for those three and a half years. He watched him heal the blind and cast out demons and raise people from the dead. And he realized that, according to the Old Testament, that this was the long-awaited Messiah. And he believed Jesus full-heartedly when he said that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. So John knew that Jesus was the only way to God. And after he had seen Jesus,

I think when you see something like that, you tend to really grasp a hold of it, which is what John did. And now his whole mission in life is to get this particular message out. I think that God knew John well. enough to know that he was not a fair-weathered Christian. I think that Jesus knew that John could be trusted with this really, really important book of Revelation. We've seen John never ever run away when things got difficult.

And so I think because John was so faithful that God knew he could be trusted with this really, really important book of Revelation that you and I know that that's what it is. Now, in this vision that we see, what we're seeing is a veil. For those people that read the Old Testament, there was almost like these bits and pieces that they could see, but they never really understood the whole entire picture. It's kind of like this up here. What is under here is being veiled.

And all I can do is tell you little bits and pieces about what's under here, but until I actually remove the veil, you're not going to know what that actually is. So I'll give you some hints to what is under here. One, it's always moving. Another clue is that it speaks to people daily. Some people take it for granted. Some people worship what is under here.

Some people believe it's a precious commodity, more valuable than silver and gold. It comes in different shapes and sizes. It's very, very vitally important to most people. It can be a slave master. It never stands still, and it comes and goes daily. and it should be never wasted. So if I tell you those things, you're going to try to think, well, it sounds like this or it sounds like this, but until I actually come up here and remove the veil,

you're not going to really know that all along I'm talking about clocks. That's what Revelation is. It's this unveiling. It's the things that we couldn't really understand before. Now the veil is off, and now we can actually see what Jesus is talking about. Not only so much about end times, which is what it is, but what is unveiled to us and what we're going to see.

today is the absolute majesty of Jesus and who he is. I know for me, I always thought, I grew up believing that Jesus was kind of meek and he was kind of mild and he held baby sheep and patted kids on the head, but What I want you to see today is that we're dealing with someone so incredibly different than that. And he's powerful and he's majestic. And today is the picture that we're going to get of that.

Let's start in verse 10. John says this, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet. Now, this is what amazes me is that John is worshiping Jesus. He's in the spirit, which probably means he's praying, he's worshiping, he's possibly singing. But here's what I don't understand, because I know that I'm probably not like John in this aspect.

John had just been boiled in oil, and he just watched all of his friends being martyred, and he's sent to this island for preaching Jesus. And here he was sitting in this island all by himself, and he's worshiping God. And that's actually the point that I would like to get to. But I think so often if I have a bad day or something tragic happens or maybe the doctor gives me bad news or maybe our business fails.

I would love for my response to be what John's is, which is just praying and worshiping and thanking God. And I always say, if this is the bar I have to get to, I have a long way to go for that to happen. Now for John, he's worshiping and the Holy Spirit takes over. This is what he says in verse 11.

saying, write in the book which you will see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, to Philadelphia and Laodicea. John's job was to write down everything that the Holy Spirit was going to tell him that we now, of course, know as Revelation.

and John was to send it to these seven churches. Here is a picture up here of these particular seven churches. You can see John is on the island of Patmos. Those are the actual seven little churches that were here at this particular time. Starting next week.

We're actually going to go through each one of those churches. And what we're going to find out is that Jesus has now been gone for about 50 to 60 years. And in that short time, the churches had a lot of issues that Jesus wanted to deal with before we get to... all the big crazy stuff that happens in Revelation. Verse 12, let's start there. Then I turned to see a voice.

that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. Now, I have to tell you my little lampstand story because I ended up thinking, I really want seven lampstands up here to show you kind of what John would have seen. So I got seven lampstands. I went to three different Goodwills to do that. The last one I went to, she asked me if I wanted the senior discount. And I was like so shocked. I'm like, are you joking? Do you think I'm a senior?

And then I realized that I think senior means like 95. So I just asked her what her senior age was, and she said 55. And I realized, wow, I guess I'm a senior now. I guess that's what's going on here. So I got all of these seven lampstands home and I started going through this verse and I read golden lampstands and I looked at them all and I'm like, wait a minute, that one's silver, that one's bronze, that one's whatever. And so I realized that I needed to actually make them all gold.

So I went to the store. I didn't even know they had gold paint, but now I do know that. And all of this lampstands now up here are looking like what John would have seen. He turns around and looks and he sees seven golden lampstands standing there.

Now, when we got home that day, I painted them, and it was kind of a crazy busy day trying to get all of this done. And so we load everything into, Juan showed up at the house, and he says, let's get all this stuff loaded in your car. Started loading everything into it. And I was backing up with the trunk thing open, which I didn't realize that when that's open, the camera doesn't work. And so as it opened up...

It didn't beep, and I ran literally right into, here you go, to Dusty's truck. And I destroyed the whole side of Dusty's truck. Here's a picture of my car and the back of my car too, which is why my car is in the shop, which is why my necklace is in the car in the shop. All that there. Anyway, I sent Cheyenne a picture, and it was this picture here, and this was of these seven lampstands, and I said, well...

Even though Dusty's truck is ruined and mine is, we at least have seven cute golden lampstands. So that's what is going on up here. All right. We've always heard that Jesus, when he calls himself... the son of God, he is saying he's God.

And we always hear when he says son of man that he is talking about himself and his humanness. And I want you to know that in this verse 13 that we just said, and in the middle of the lampstands, I saw one like a son of man. Now, that looks kind of weird. but...

it kind of depicts, as we'll see today, what Jesus was wearing and the white hair that he had. And up here, it looks very odd, but for John, it would have all come together and made total sense to him. But it's interesting that verse 13 says, It does not say son of man. It does not say son of God.

And what we need to know is that when the Bible says the son of man, it actually means that he's God. It doesn't mean his humanness, it means his godness, I guess is what the word is, probably not even a word. Luke 5.24 shows us that, but that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Well, we know that nobody can forgive sins except God, so we see Son of Man, and it means in that instance that he's God. John 5.26.

says for as the father has life in itself so he granted the son to have life and has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man so whenever you see the son of man in the bible you automatically need to switch thinking that he was human but more that this is him talking about God. Now, here's our next screen here. The son of God in a Jewish context means came from or bears the image of. Even Adam was referred to as the son of God. If you look at

Luke 3.38, when they have the genealogy, it says the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. So we see that this next screen says that Jesus is the son of God means he bores the image of God. So whenever it says he's the son of God, it just means he's like God. He bears the same image as God.

In other words, he's like the father. We have some cute pictures up here of these dads and their sons, and they're kind of bearing the image of their sons. I thought this one was cute. And then we'll look at the next one. And I thought this one was really cute. And then this one made me laugh. And then this was cute because it's sons doing what their fathers do. So here's what you need to know on the next screen. Jesus is the son of man means he is God.

We see the Son of Man all the way back in Daniel when Daniel has this vision about the end times. We see this vision of heaven and it's the exact same thing that we see in Revelation. Daniel says this, look at this. Daniel 7 verse 13, I was watching in the night visions.

And behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. In his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. The greatness of God is always clearly displayed in his Son, the Son of Man.

But I think we have a very, very faulty view of who Jesus really is. And that's why Jesus asked the disciples in Matthew 16, but what about you? Like, who do you say that I am? And the question is doubly crucial for us today because here's our next screen. Not every Jesus is the real Jesus.

We've got to get that. It's so important for us to know that people will say, oh, Jesus is this way, and he's not. It's not the Jesus of the Bible. Kevin DeYoung wrote a book called Who Do You Say That I Am? And he wrote a bunch of different books.

ways that people look at jesus and here's one of them republican jesus some people think that jesus was just a republican that he votes against tax increases and he's for family values and he and he wants you to own a firearm and and a lot of people believe that that's what Jesus is all about. And that's all well and good unless you are a Democrat.

And then we have people who think that it's Democrat Jesus. And he's for tax increases and he literally hates Donald Trump. So that's kind of where we go with that. Some people think, on the next screen here, that it's therapist Jesus. And he's only there to help you cope with your life problems and he's there to heal your past and to always tell you how valuable you are. Some people think that Jesus is this, Starbucks Jesus.

Starbucks Jesus, he drinks fair trade coffee and he loves spiritual conversations and he drives a hybrid and goes to film festivals. That's some people's view of who Jesus is. Here's our next one. We see this a lot. Open-minded Jesus. He loves people all the time, no matter what they do, no matter what they believe. And you're going to hear a lot about this Jesus because they're like, oh, Jesus would never send someone to hell. He's just open-minded about everyone.

Some people, this one made me laugh, called him, they think he's touchdown Jesus, and he helps athletes run faster and jump higher than non-Christians, and he always determines the outcome of Super Bowls. Here's another one that people think of Jesus. They think he's just martyred Jesus. He's a good man who died a cruel death, so we could just pretty much feel sorry for him. Then a lot of people think he's this one, gentle Jesus.

He's meek and mild. He's got high cheekbones, flowing hair, walks around barefoot wearing a sash while looking very German. Some people think he's this hippie Jesus. Hippie Jesus, he teaches everyone to just give peace a chance. Imagine a world without religion. And just says, all you need is love. A lot of people think that's what Jesus is. Many think that this is Jesus. Yuppie Jesus.

He just encourages us that I just want you to reach your full potential. Reach for the stars. Go buy a boat. And then there's this one, spirituality Jesus. This is the one that... Hates religion and hates churches and hates pastors and priests and doctrine. Just wants you to go out and find Jesus in nature. Okay, so a lot of people believe that Jesus is that way. You probably have a lot of friends that believe that.

Here's the next one, Platitude Jesus. This is a Jesus that's good for Christmas specials. greeting cards and Facebook posts. We all know people like that. They put platitude Jesus on their Facebook. It's like they have 20 pictures of them out partying and getting drunk on the weekend and one verse. And you're like, serious? I don't think that really goes. But they believe in a platitude Jesus.

How's this next one? Revolutionary Jesus. He teaches us to rebel against everything. Stick it to the man. Blame it on the system. Okay, there are people that actually believe Jesus is for all that. Here's the next one. Guru Jesus. Okay, that Jesus is just a wise, inspirational teacher, that he just helps you kind of find your center. So that's that. Who's our next one? Boyfriend Jesus.

He wraps his arms around us as we sing about his intoxicating love for us. Here's our last one. Good example, Jesus. He's there to show you how to help you change and become a better you. Before you email me, do not do that, okay? Don't say, well, then Jesus is a little bit of each one of those things, okay? Just so you know that. But there's some people that put their focus and say, this is my Jesus, he's Republican.

This is my Jesus. He's just there to help me with my problems. And they don't realize the magnitude of who Jesus really honestly is. And we get this false version of who he is.

Here is who he is on the next screen. Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. This is a big deal. Jesus is a big deal. Here's what he is. Not just another prophet, not just another rabbi, not just another wonder worker. He was the one who had been waiting for, the son of David and Abraham's chosen seed. The one to deliver us from captivity, the goal of the Mosaic law, Yahweh in the flesh. The one to establish God's reign and rule. The one to heal the sick, give sight to the blind.

freedom to the prisoners and proclaim good news to the poor, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. This Jesus was the creator. come to earth and the beginning of a new creation. He embodied the covenant, fulfilled the commandments, and reversed the curse. This Jesus is the Christ that God spoke of to the serpent, the Christ prefigured to Noah in the flood, the Christ promised to Abraham.

The Christ prophesied through Balaam before the Moabites. The Christ guaranteed to Moses before he died. The Christ promised to David when he was king. The Christ revealed to Isaiah as a suffering servant. The Christ predicted through the prophets. prepared for through John the Baptist. This Christ is not a reflection of the current mood.

or the projection of our own desires. He is our Lord and God. He is the Father, Son, Savior of the world, and substitute for our sins more loving, more holy, and more wonderfully terrifying than we ever thought possible. That's worth clapping for, I think. Yep. Yes. That is the Jesus that we have to believe. Not all the goofy Jesuses that we just saw, but this particular one. At a reception honoring Sir Robert Mayer on his 100th birthday,

British socialite Lady Diana Cooper fell into a conversation with a very friendly woman who seemed to know her well. Lady Diana's eyesight was failing, so she wasn't really sure who she was talking to until she saw the jewelry and the diamonds that was on this woman, and she realized she was... talking to Queen Elizabeth. And overcome with embarrassment, Lady Diana curtsied and said, ma'am, I'm so sorry. I didn't recognize you without your crown. And that is what Jesus was like.

Here's our screen up here. Jesus bore no glowing physical attributes that seem to suggest his eternal majesty. That is because he walked this earth without his crown. I love that. When Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah 53, 2 says this, he had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. That's the Jesus we need to make sure that we're putting our faith and trust in. Not the silliness of the other ones. Let's go back to verse 12.

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 lampstand, I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed in a robe, reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a gold sash. Honestly, I didn't know how to depict this. I really had no idea. And my biggest question was, is it a white robe? It seems like it would have been a priestly robe. But for the moment, this morning I got online and I was like,

robe in Revelation. And when Jesus comes back, he will be wearing a robe dipped in red blood to show who he is. So I thought, all right, that's what we're going to put up here. So what does a golden lampstand, why are these lampstands even here? What does it even mean in the Bible? So when we... This is what we say about Revelation. When you don't understand something, you have to find it somewhere else in the Bible. So we have to go down to verse 20. And John explains the...

It's explained to John. As for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angel of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the churches. So... what he's taking and i didn't attempt this so i don't even know if this is going to work here's the church of philadelphia you see how this works each one of these lampstands represent one of those seven churches look at that these are actually working

All right, well, you get the point. I have the rest of them, but we could do this all day, and then you'd be like, could you just get on with the stinking lesson? Okay.

All right, there are ones back there, but you gotta get the point there. These are the seven churches that we just saw the map of. So he turns around and he's saying, oh, Jesus is standing in the midst of these churches. That's what's going on here. So I want to talk about lampstands for a second, because I want you to really look at this and say, lampstands don't do much. And these are the churches, but what do the lampstands do? They hold light.

And so the point is to these churches is that the churches are the lampstands, but you and I as followers of Christ, we're the light that is produced in... in these lampstands as the way it goes. Matthew 5.14 says this, you as Christians are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket but on the lampstand and gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. So John sees these churches and he's realizing that these are actual, literal churches, but what comes out of these churches has to be light. And the light has to be you and it has to be me.

There was a couple who received two horrible, horrible, ugly bedside table lamps as a wedding present from a distant aunt. But they were so ugly that they just put them away and got new ones. But then the aunt about three years later showed up. So they ran really fast to get the old ones out and put the new ones and they took the old ones or the ones that they used to have and stuck them under the bed and then put the new ones up.

So when the aunt walked in the room, they're like, oh, look at your lamps that you got us. Aren't they beautiful? They went to flip on the light, and underneath the bed, everything lit up. They forgot to unplug them. I thought that was great. But light...

It emits out of places like that, which is what you and I. See, for most of us, we think the church is just there really to meet our needs. We need to go and get fed, and we need to learn things. They don't realize that why we go there is so that we can learn to. to go out into the world, to learn about the Word of God so that we can be lights out to other people. We need to remember that what that looks like is how we act. Now...

When we first started doing this series, when we first started teaching, we were teaching at Babbo's. And I'll never forget, I ran into Babbo's right before Bible study. I needed something, and I put my credit card in, and for some reason, the credit card did not go through.

And I'm so frustrated, like I'm about ready to just pop off and say something to the girl that's helping me. And she looks at me and she goes, oh, she goes, I'm right in the middle of reading your book. And all I could say was, thank you, God. that I did not pop off and say what I wanted to say because I'm like, we have to remember that people are watching us all the time and they're watching how we act and we say we're Christians, but if we're acting not Christians, it's not working.

I have to tell you this. I'll tell you how. Okay, so this is how we're supposed to act. This was me just a little while back, like a couple weeks ago. I'll have to tell you about this. Rob is going out of town. I don't think I told you this. Rob went out of town.

He said, I need you to get me a hotel room in Independence, Missouri. Did I tell you this story? Okay. Independence, Missouri. So I looked on Expedia, and there was this bed and breakfast. We'd never stayed at a bed and breakfast. Didn't even know what that was like. It was cheaper, so I was like, well, this looks...

kind of cute you're gonna be out all day you just go in and sleep whatever great booked it so you know how hotels always send you like a welcome letter like welcome glad you're joining us okay Never once have I ever, ever, ever read a welcome email from anybody that we ever, or hotel that we ever stayed at. So apparently they sent me an email, which of course I didn't read. So at 3.30, the phone rings, I pick it up, and it's this bed and breakfast.

And the guy goes, where are you? And I'm like, my husband just got off the airplane. It's 5.30 back there. Well, you have to be here by 6. I'm like, what are you talking about? I have to be here by 6. And he's like,

Well, yeah, you can't. I won't check you in after 6. And I'm like, my husband just got off a plane. Aren't you like a hotel? Like, you're open 24 hours a day. Like, if someone gets there at 9, nope. I sent you an email. Sorry. If he's not here by 6, you don't get in our bed and breakfast tonight.

So call Rob, Rob calls him, and he says, look, I'll be there at 610. Like, we are literally leaving the airport. The guy said, nope, not here at 6, not letting you in. Okay, someone wasn't very happy. My light? It was not shining. I just want you to know that, okay? Rob had to go get another hotel. They would not let him in. It was the craziest thing. Independence, Missouri, Hawthorne, don't ever stay there. Just FYI, okay? Anyway, that's part of my not...

having my light on right now. But anyway, my whole point was that is that I... I yelped him that night. Okay, I don't even do yelp. I don't even know what that means, but I knew that I needed to do something. And so I made the most scathing yelp you've ever heard in your life. But here's the pop.

problem is that you and I, we talked about this in, I think it was Acts, we're always constantly between our flesh and our spirit. But when we're living in the spirit, we're acting right. That's what we look like. And that needs to be the goal, and that's what Jesus is saying. I'm walking around these churches, and I'm trying to see if anyone's light is on. Here's our next screen, because why?

Promote people wanting to come to Christ or turn them away. Those are our options. When our light's on, we're going to promote Jesus. If our light's off, we are not going to. We're going to turn them away. So here's how that looks. If we sit around and we whine about our circumstances all the time. we yelp people that just that's just their it's my fault I didn't read the email so it's not even his fault but I

let them have it anyway. When we gossip about our friends, when we go get drunk on the weekends, when we're terrified of the future and we're always worried about it, we are never ever going to be a light. That's what we're going to look like right there. Nothing. No one's going to want to come to Christ if they see us like that.

But if we have bad situations and we rejoice in our situations, that's what we're going to look like. When we go and have a glass of wine or two instead of 20 and get, like, we can be a light. It's like when we look at the future and we just know with confidence that God is in control, that's when we can be a light, a time when life is so terrifying. That is our job, is to be a light.

A woman announced to her husband, I had a problem with a car today. He was deeply concerned and said, what went wrong? And she said, the oil pressure warning light kept coming on. She said, don't worry, I fixed it. What do you mean you fix it? And she goes, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out how to take a light bulb out of a car.

Like, yeah, I don't think it works that way. Like, you can't take the pressure warning light bulb out because you're still going to have a problem. But I thought that was kind of cute. Apparently, you didn't find that as cute as I did. So never mind. I'm never telling you another joke in Revelation. So here's the deal.

When we see Jesus in the middle, he's looking at the churches, and I want you to know that he's watching us, and this is kind of a great scene to realize that. Verse 13, in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to his feet, girded across. his chest with a golden sash.

Now in the Old Testament, robes and sashes were worn by priests. And so this is a picture right here that John sees of a priest. And we were reminded in Revelation that Jesus is our high priest. priest and he does not just show up in jeans and a t-shirt and just like, hey guys, he doesn't do that. He dresses in whatever represents himself.

I think I told you this before. Rob and I were in Africa many years ago. Went on an elevator. There was a military man there dressed in all this military garb. And I looked at his like... whatever he had on he had all these stars and I'm like wow you must be really important and he just stares at me

to which Rob pretends he doesn't know me. Okay, so as we get off the elevator, Rob goes, do you have any idea who that was? And I'm like, zero idea. And he said he was a four-star United States general. And I was like, oh, okay. So... Rob knew who he was by his uniform. I, on the other hand, am just embarrassing to travel with, apparently, okay? So don't travel with me. That's the moral to that story. But when John saw what Jesus was wearing, it clicked. It was like, he's the high priest.

And a priest is someone that comes between God and man. And a high priest would go and sacrifice animals and do that kind of stuff for the sins of the people. And this was important for John to see. Hebrews 2 says this, He had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 3.1, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest. You see, we see it all through the Bible. Hebrews 4.14, Therefore, since we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God,

let us hold fast our confession. Hebrews 7.25, therefore he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. That's what high priests do, they make intercession. And Hebrews 9.12, not through the blood of goats and cows, So this is what John is seeing, this whole picture of Jesus as a high priest.

Then he sees this, verse 14, his head and his hair were like white, like white wool, like snow. That's what I said. That was a hard thing to find. I'm sure it wasn't in curls like that is, but you kind of get the, it is this long flowing white hair. And this is what he sees. We see this picture in Daniel, all the way back in Daniel 7, the same thing. Look what that says, verse 9. Yeah.

And his throne was ablaze with flames. Its wheels were a burning fire. And the river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands were attending him. And myriads upon myriads were standing before him. The court sat and the books were opened. So you see this picture.

of God the Father all the way back in Daniel, but then you see this picture of Jesus, which kind of brings the Trinity together. All God. They're all God. Jesus is God. The Father's God. The Holy Spirit's God. So you kind of see this whole thing. They all have this look. about them. John sees that his visions were like, his eyes were like flame of fire, and it reminds us that Jesus is passionate about what he sees going on in his church. We kind of tend to think, oh, I just did that.

I did the stupidest thing yesterday. I can't even believe I tell you guys of this. I lied. I don't lie, and I lied yesterday. And I got this carpet cleaner for the new house, and I've been working with this one company, and... But she never called me back, and we kept missing each other. So then this other company called, so I hired them. Well, then she called back, and she was sad because she's like, Lisa, I've been trying too hard. So then I...

text this guy back. And I lied to him. And I said, you know what? I said, we just decided we're going to stain the floors first and we'll do the carpets later. I'll get back with you in the next couple of weeks. Well, that wasn't true.

I wasn't going to do that because I hired this other company. It was a bold-faced lie. I could not even believe I did it, but I was embarrassed and didn't know what to do. So Rob came home, and I said I lied, and he just looked at me. And of course, you know, it's like those flaming eyes.

pointing right straight to me, and I could just feel the presence of God going, you can't do that, Lisa. I literally called the guy back. I'm standing outside, and I'm sobbing. I'm like, I'm so sorry I lied to you. And he's like, okay. It's like I was being the crazy woman of the day. But it's like when God is, you can't get away with stuff.

And Jesus is like looking at us saying, it's not how my child is supposed to act. I need you to be a light. And he would never have known that I lied. But for me, I knew and God knew and I needed to make that right. Or I couldn't have taught. See, my day was really sucky yesterday. Okay, FYI, it was a really tough day. So anyway.

Verse 15, his feet were like burnished bronze when it had been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like that sound of many waters. Bronze was used for weapons, so we almost see here that Jesus will be the judge with a weapon for war. We see him. sounding like waters. We see that all the way back in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 43 says this, Verse 16.

Revelation 116. 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. Once again, we have to figure out what that means, the seven stars. Seven stars, of course. We looked at that in verse 20. Are the angels of the seven churches? Huge debate over what that means. Either an angel is an actual little angel that overlooks these churches.

Or it's the actual person who maybe it's the pastor or someone like that and they call him an angel. That's one of those that I don't have an answer for you. The last part of verse 16 says he has a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth. We see two-edged sword in Hebrews 4.12. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. So we know that what's coming out of Jesus' mouth is the word of God.

And so that's why it's so important for you and I to know our Bible so that we know because that's how we will live and be judged by what has come out of his mouth. And then we saw that his face was shining. And I think when John saw this vision of Jesus, he's like, oh my gosh, I remember that shining face someplace else. Remember Matthew 17 when Jesus took...

Peter, James, and John up to the Mount of Transfiguration. Verse one, six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them up on a high mountain and he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his garments became as... white is light.

And so this picture John sees of Jesus was so different than what he saw on earth. When he saw him on earth, he just hung out with him. He ate with him. They probably drank wine together, okay? He healed the blind and raised the dead. This was... a Jesus in his humanity that he knew. But when John sees this, it just so blows him away because it's like this is Jesus in all of his glory and all of his majesty.

I thought this was really cute. We don't have much time, but I thought we have to read this. You and I have a very earthly human way that we vision Jesus. This little boy, Danny Dutton, he was age eight. He had a third grade homework assignment to explain God. It was kind of cute, so we have to read it. One of God's main jobs is making people.

He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on the earth. He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to the mothers and fathers. God's second most important job is listening to prayers.

An awful lot of this goes on since some people like preachers and things pray at times besides bedtime. God doesn't have to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears. Unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.

God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere, which keeps him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have. I thought that was cute. Atheists, he's brilliant, are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church. Jesus is God's son.

He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them, and they crucified him. But he was good and kind like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them, and God said, Okay.

His dad, God, appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth, so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.

You can pray anytime you want, and they are sure to hear you because they got it all worked out, so one of them is on duty all times. You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy. And if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church and do something you think will be more fun, like going to the beach. This is wrong. Besides, the sun doesn't come out into the beach until noon anyway. If you don't believe in God, just...

Besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely because your parents can't go everywhere with you like camp, but God can. It's good to know he's around you when you're scared in the dark or when you can't swim very good or you get thrown in the real deep water by big kids. But you shouldn't just always think of... what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases. And that's why I believe in God.

And I love that. I love the simplicity of that. But I think that's the simplicity that John knew of Jesus when he was here on earth. But now he sees a completely different vision of him. He sees this long robe and a golden chest that represents him being a high priest. The white hair represents eternal wisdom. You have the blazing eyes that pierces...

us when we sin and lie. Bronze feet demonstrates the ability to judge others. He has this powerful voice that calls to us. The sword shows us the importance of his word, and the radiant face invites us into the presence. This is Jesus, not the baby in a stinky manger, but the one who created this world. He stepped into it, and this is a picture of God, Emmanuel, Jesus. This is what I want us to see today.

Now John sees him, and instead of going, hey, good old buddy, it's so nice to see you, this is what he does in verse 17. When I saw him, I fell at his face like a dead man. Like when someone sees Jesus in all of his glory, it's not the good buddy upstairs. It is on your face. You're terrified. This vision we see is normal. This exact thing happened all through the Bible. Look at Daniel 10.

So I was left alone and saw a great vision, yet no strength was left in me, for my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength. But I heard the sound of his words, and as soon as I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground. hearing his voice through people onto the ground.

Ezekiel says this is the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. Ezekiel 3 says, So I got up and went out to the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory which I saw by the river Shabar, and I fell on my face. Ezekiel 44 says,

upon my face. All through the Bible, this is what we see. I see him in his glory and I fall. It's such a shocking vision to see God and his majesty. It's so awesome. Mercy Me wrote the song, I Can Only Imagine. He seems to know after what we read. Here's the verses up here. Surrounded by your glory. What will my heart feel? Will I dance for you, Jesus, or in awe of you be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?

Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? And I think we see from the Bible and what John does that it literally throws you right on the ground and you're going to be like, oh, I don't know that I really want to see how awesome he is. But look at what Jesus does. This is so cool. Verse 17, the second half.

And he, Jesus, placed his right hand on me after John had fallen like a dead man and said, 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. have the keys of death and of Hades. And I love that Jesus did this to John. John is now about 90 years old. He suffered so much as a follower of Christ. And Jesus does not say, you know, you should get on your face. He doesn't do that. He puts his hand and says, John, John.

Look at Matthew 17 at the transfiguration. Jesus says the exact same thing, verse 7. But Jesus came and touched them and said, get up. Don't be afraid. But in this whole conversation, John is reminded by Jesus that Jesus is eternal. He's been here since the beginning. He's here for all eternity. He was alive. He died. He rose from the dead. He conquered death. And guess who has the keys to death and hell? Jesus.

That's why it's really important if you don't know him that you need to know him because he's the one that has that can unlock that door for you to get into heaven. Death is final. And I think we need to really, really grasp that. That once someone dies, they cannot come to Jesus. There is no more door or key or anything to get to heaven. I saw the finality from a bird. I was looking out our window the other day.

Uh-oh. We're going to lose. Who are we losing? Ephesus? Stay. You heard that noise. I'm sitting in my kitchen and I look out and the pool looks like it's in turmoil. And I was like, what's going on? I walk out there and there's a bird. And he got in the pool, and he was flopping around, so I went and I got a skimmer thing, and I got him out, and I set him on the porch. He came out the next night. Next day, he's still there.

I think he broke his leg or hurt his leg. He couldn't really move or do whatever. But I also have, we have coyotes, and I didn't want the coyotes to eat them, so I decided to get a box. So Rob and I got a box, and we went and picked up the bird, and we put him in the box, and we put water there, and I thought, you know.

maybe that'll help him get better and I sat him down there and started studying and it wasn't one minute later I looked over he was dead and I was like Rob that bird is dead and he's like oh he's probably sleeping and i'm like no trust me he's dead like gone final final and as i looked at that i thought oh my gosh we tend to minimize that. That we live in this earth and we've forgotten that once someone dies, eternity is forever.

And so that's what we need to focus on. Am I caring about the importance of someone else's eternity? And I love what Jesus tells John, I have the keys to Hades and to death. I'm the one you need to come to. So Jesus tells John what he wants him to do. Verse 19, therefore write the things which you've seen, the things which are and the things which will take place after these things. My takeaway for this today is this.

I want to remind you and I want to remind me that this world we live in, we're on a really short timetable. And whether we live to 90 or 100 or 110 or whatever, at some point it's all going to be over. And when John sees Jesus, I think suddenly it revitalizes him to get the message of Jesus out because it's the only way that people will come to know eternity and spend eternity with Jesus.

We are like this little blip on a screen, and yet we spend so much of our time on things that just don't even matter. Most of us live our lives with this stuff. And here's what I want you to know. Everything up here is going to fade away. Some of you are like into hobbies and crafts, and that's a good thing. Here's a sticker. It's temporary.

Some of you love to decorate your houses and you care about stuff like that. None of this stuff's bad. I just want you to know none of this stuff is bad whatsoever. But you're putting a lot of time and effort in doing stuff. And I can't get that off, so whatever.

But here's what you need to know. We're putting our mind and heart into things that are temporary. Some of you like your vehicles. I don't like mine so much right now since it's kind of destroyed. I'm pretty sure my son doesn't like his either. There you go. Temporary. Some of you like to travel the world. That's good. I love to travel. Temporary. Some of you have beach houses or maybe even a house.

guess what temporary some of you i put a sheep up here some of you like dogs cats sheep i'm gonna probably fall off of here temporary oh okay there's the point life is filled with temporary and we're spending so much time in the temporary putting all of our effort into stuff like this when john sees jesus and says wait a minute all this stuff is

temporary. Not that we need to live and we need to have a house and we like to travel. We're not saying that. But what are we most focused on? Are we living for these things? For money, for jobs, vacation, children, retirement, all of those things. Or are we focused on how we can be a light so others can spend eternity with us? I'll tell you my last Hallmark movie.

It's called Ring the Bell. It's about a sports agent who went to a little tiny town to get this kid right out of high school to become a professional baseball player. He goes to this little town, and the guy's like, I'm not... i don't want to do that and he's like but you're so good you can make millions of dollars and his whole heart was to help these boys in a foster home and he said because those kids need eternity and they need to know jesus

And I can't be off doing things that aren't important for eternity. Now, granted, he could make a lot of money and we can go that direction. But the whole point is that he was investing his life for things that were important. Because here's what we need to know. Souls are what matter. It just does. We live here for one to 100 years, but eternity is forever. And I wanted you to see a visual of this up here. What are we putting our life into?

Because I want you to know that Jesus holds the key to death. And someday we're going to die, and when we are, it's too late for anything else to happen. But while we're here, we can live for this, for Jesus, for telling others about him. And here's what I want you to know. If you don't know him today, ask him in your life, because otherwise you won't be led into heaven, because it's only through him as the only door. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, God, for this.

great visual of Jesus. Help us to get the right picture of who he is so that we can worship and serve him knowing who he really is. Thank you for this vision, for John, for Revelation, for all of these things. I pray that you will help us walk out of here different people today because we know now that you are watching us and you are asking us to be a light in this very, very dark world. I pray for each one of us to do that. In Jesus' name, amen.