Sermon Tone Analysis

February 27, 2011

By: John Barnett

Read, print, and listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

Revelation is God lifting the lid off of Christ, or pulling back the wrapping paper on something very special about Jesus, but not yet fully seen or known.

That is what the first word of this book says.

So, chapter 1 is God holding out for us: What Jesus is doing right now.

Chapters 2-3 are God showing us what Jesus sees in His Church.

Chapters 4-22 are what God wants us to know about His plans for the future.

Each of these sections of Revelation is a disclosure, and an unveiling of things not yet fully seen, or even really understood.

So the summary of the last book of the Bible is: God knows we need reminders.

That’s why we have the last book in our Bibles.

It is a book to remind us: that God has a plan, His plan is on target, and all we need to do is keep our eyes fixed on Christ.

God wants us to know what Jesus is at work right now.

The purpose of Revelation is to remind the Church to focus on what Christ was doing on Earth, of what He left us here to do, and how we can get it done.

That’s the:

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Reminder GodGives His Servants

As we open to Revelation 1, think about the setting God used to send to us, Christ's Last Words to His Church.

Remember that the believers of the 1st Century were normal people with real problems.

That is true about even the one God chose to record the words we will soon read.

John the apostle was a fisherman from small seaside town of Galilee.

Now he is all alone, banished on Patmos, a prison colony island, off the coast of modern Turkey.

Yes, there were probably many other prisoners, but John was far from his family.

As far as we know from history he was completely isolated from his wife and children, so he had no family encouragement.

As far as colleagues: his own brother James as well as all the other apostles, even Paul had been hunted down and murdered.

So John had no dear old friends left to encourage him.

It is not a real stretch to think that at a minimum, these were hard times.

For John, those days of following Christ, when Jesus called and taught him and all the other Apostles, seemed a long way off.

If any of us were in John’s sandals, trudging along the paths of Patmos, we could easily confess that Jesus felt far away at times.

For someone who knew Jesus face-to-face for 3 plus years, having Christ ascended to Heaven meant at the least: Jesus and His plan, that used to be so clear, seemed distant.

But what God wanted John to know then, and us who live today to know right now is that:

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Jesus NeverChanges

Do you sometimes feel distant from the Lord?

We have the Bible, we have the church, we have all those books and music, and tools that remind us of the Lord.

But, as we go through all the struggles of life, most of us seem to arrive at those distant times, feeling far from the Lord.

Other times if we aren’t careful to maintain spiritual disciplines, we get unhealthy.

By not eating God's Word regularly and exercising ourselves in ministry, we become weak.

Weakness can cause us to slowly drift away from some of the gracious assurances that we had felt in the past, and we just hurt, ache and struggle on going through the motions of a walk with the Lord.

If we take the time to fully understand what lies before us in this passage, we will find that Revelation 1 was a very special gift to the Church reminding each of them back 2,000 years ago, and each of us today that Jesus Christ is the same (as Hebrews 13:8 reminds us):

* Yesterday (when He walked the dusty trails of Galilee with the disciples, and later when He met with John on Patmos); and

* Today (as He walks up and down among us here in His gathered Church); and

* Forever (as we enjoy His presence in Heaven).

Did you catch that?

Jesus wants His Church to know that He is still doing just what He did that Sunday morning with John on Patmos, and in the days that followed.

So much of His ministry was assuring the disciples of what they already knew, and encouraging them to do what He left them here to do.

Revelation 1 uncovers, reveals, discloses, and displays for each member of Christ's church: what Jesus is doing today.

The purpose of Revelation, as v. 1 declares, is to SHOW us who are His servants the only eye witness, complete description of the Risen Christ.

It was on a Sunday, a Lord’s Day like today.

And in the flawless record of that meeting comes a perfect description of what Jesus looks like.

And from that description we find out exactly what He is doing then and now!

God pulls back the wrapping paper and says, “Look and:

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See Christ Today In His Church

Open with me to the last book in God's Word, Revelation 1.9-13 and notice the very precise specifics of what John saw about Jesus.

Revelation 1:9-13 I, /John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11 saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned I saw seven golden lamp stands [read that as representing all churches, v. 20], 13 and in the midst of the seven lamp stands: One like the Son of Man; clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band./

If you’ll closely look at v. 13, you will find that John actually sees Him doing after the Resurrection just what He did while He was here on Earth before His death, burial and Resurrection.

Jesus is the same—yesterday, today, and forever (Heb.

13:8).

And how John needed that reminder—and so do we!

What did John see? Pencil these in your mind, mark them in your Bibles, and hold tight to them in your heart—He saw Jesus and tells us of it.

When John sees the Risen Christ, He is—

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Reminding us that He is Human.

v. 13a “One like a Son of Man”.

So He can truly have compassion upon us.

Jesus can feel my needs completely.

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Praying for us as our Great High Priest.

v. 13b Jesus is dressed like a priest to remind us that He is our High Priest.

“clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band”.

Jesus defends us constantly as He prays and intercedes for us.

Jesus is the perfect priest, He can truly forgive us.

The purpose Revelation was written was to help Christ's servants: that’s US! Jesus first revealed Himself as the help we all need.

Today, more than anything else, we need to experience Jesus Christ as He is right now.

Starting in v. 13 we find a truth that keeps us through the daily struggles, and the growing challenges that life will always bring.

What was the first truth that God wants us to see about Jesus?

Above everything else, God reveals to His servants that we need to always remember and never forget that Jesus is “One like a Son of Man”.

Jesus is completely human.

Jesus is able to understand us where we are.

He is not living so far away and above us that He is out of touch with where we struggle.

That means the first truth God wants us to understand is:

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Jesus Can Feel My Needs Completely:Do you Understand Christ's Humanity?

v. 13a “One like a Son of Man”.

All of the lessons of Revelation are previous truth that God wants to remind us about in a new, fresh, and powerful way.

To grasp what is being said in this first half of Revelation 1:13, turn over with me to the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, where God's Word describes the purpose of the 100% humanity of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:14-18 /Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted./

NKJV

God wants to unwrap and hold out for us to see in a new, fresh, and powerful way that Jesus feels what we feel.

He knows what we are going through.

He understands where we are, what we struggle with and amazingly says that He has felt the same temptations!

Again, in Hebrews 4, Jesus reinforces this truth: He has felt what we feel, He has wrestled with what we wrestle with.

Jesus is the only One who can really say to us, “I know what you’re going through.”

Hebrews 4:15 /For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin./

Jesus was made like us; He can feel our needs completely—so He can truly have compassion upon us.

What we need in all of our struggles is compassion.

What we long for in all of our temptations is to know that someone understands what we’re struggling with.

As humans we have so many needs, such deep feelings, and such great struggles it often helps most just to know someone understands what we’re going through.

There is One who understands BETTER than anyone else.

There is One who “feel together with us” that is what the Greek word sumpatheo from which we get the English word “sympathy”.