The Son of Man in All His Glory

Danny Watton

Revelation • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Revelation 1:9–20

0 ratings

· 6 views

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Good Morning! My name is Danny Watton and I am your service pastor. I want to thank you all for coming this morning! I pray that you had a great week and that you enjoyed some much needed time with your families and loved ones over this long weekend. The last couple of weeks have been challenging for me because I have been walking with people through their most difficult times in their lives. And it has made my heart heavy because I was unable to remove their burden. I was in the hospital with someone a couple weeks ago as they were losing a loved one. During these times I think we ask ourselves what is the purpose? Why do people have to walk down this road? Personally, I was asking God what can I do? I can’t speak and command this person to rise and be healed. That can only be done by Him who created life. And as I was going back through came across a passage that reminded me of who God is and His faithfulness. I told you that our goal since I took over this service was as we walked through Acts we would know our identities as Christians. And the book of Acts showed that too us. And the goal for us as we have being going through the last couple of months throughDeuteronomy is that we could firmly plant our identity by knowing who God is. Knowing God is extremely important for us because as we walk through the hardest of times....as we doubt Gods nearness to us, we can know through those truths that He is near us and that He is faithful and will guid us through the wilderness. So God spoke to me to remind me that He is a faithful God and that even when life absolutely doesn’t make sense that He is in control and that He will accomplish His goals so that we may experience no more pain and no more sorrow in eternity.And that truth can help us fight the good fight and to continue serving God so that people will know Him. I found myself this week looking atDeuteronomy 7:9“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps His covenants for a thousand generations and lavishes His unfailing love on those who love Him and obey His commands” I read that and was reminded that He is God and He is in control. But my faith was lacking because I wanted to know that GOD was here with us. Just as He was with the Israelites. With Moses in the desert. Was He there in the hospital room. Is He walking with the thousands of families that are losing their loved ones across the world to the Corona Virus. The ANSWER is, “YES”As we read on “the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps His covenants for a thousand generations and lavishes His unfailing love on those who love Him and obey His commands” But I was really struggling to know if God was near us like He was with Moses and the Israelites. Are we as a Chapel and as the body of Christ being faithful to what He is calling us to do or are we loving people like Christ calls us to do? I closed my Bible and prayed that He would show me that He was near and bring me peace that HE is God. I prayed that He would make real to me. And as I was going to bed on Thursday night I went through my dorm dinner photos to post on the chapel Facebook page. And I was absolutely blown away that God would take the time to speak to me and answer my prayers. DORM DINNER PHOTOAnd I realized that God is still making His purposes known and changing lives on this base. He is still the God who is lavishing comfort to those in the midst of tragedy. He is with the families who are going through illnesses and He is still working today to make sure that even though we may die here on earth that we will have an eternity with Him because He is a God who keeps His covenants. I was given peace and energized to continue the race to tell people about His love. And this week we are going to look at Gods faithfulness and love in the midst of the death of Moses. And that might clue you in that after several months of walking through this treasure of Deuteronomy that we will be concluding this book today. But before we jump into -12Let’s Pray!

Good Morning! My name is Danny Watton and I am your service pastor. I want to thank you all for being here this morning and pray that you have had a blessed week.

The Death of Moses

I am excited today. I am excited because over the last 8 months we have been on a journey together. We have been learning about God in such an intimate way through Acts and Through Dueteronomy.

And I don’t know about you but the book of Deuteronomy was rich and full of treasure that made me fall deeper in love with God. He is a God of love, power, purpose and faithfulness.

34 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea,3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Learning about how he guided the Israelites through the wilderness and protected them from certain death and brought them to the promise land just like He promised.

The Warning of the Lord

And knowing that I can trust God makes my relationship with Him so beautiful. It’s beautiful because I have a hard time trusting people. I have a hard time believing that I can count on anyone.

What an honorable title. Moses was the servant of the Lord! He loved God and he served God and had the most intimate relationship with God.He went up against Pharaoh even though he was frightened to do so. He lead the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. And then he was with them for Forty Years in the wilderness guiding them and pointing them continually back to God. May we all be honored when we come face to face with God that He may say to us, “Well done good and faithful servant”We know that even though we are servants of God we must taste death. There is no way around that unless Jesus comes back for His church before we die. And Moses was no different. But we see here in chapter 34 that Moses died outside the land of promise. But this was no surprise too Moses. Long before his death he knew that he would never set foot in the promise land. We see that in

ESV‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there.

And that comes from years ago when I was a kid and it didn’t help being a police officer for so many years.

We don’t have to unpack that today because thats not what God wants to say to us today.

But through getting to know Him and who He is has given me a hope in Him that is deeper than anything that I could have asked for.

Now I read that and I placed myself in Moses shoes. He had served the Lord with all his heart and all his mind and with all of his soul. It had been his life work to follow God and to go against Pharaoh to breaks Egypts pride. He babysat the Israelites in the wilderness and had to hear their cries as he guided them to the promise land. And through that faithful service God told him that he would not step foot in the promise land. That he would die at the foot of its gates. It was their rebellion that cost them entrance into the promise land. Its ok to say that was a bitter disappointment. To toil for so long and then to see the promise land at the top of mount Nebo but not be allowed to enjoy the land of milk and Honey. To be refused admittance. I can’t imagine what a disappointment that would have been. Can you imagine that? What if you spent two careers in the military, 40 years, saving up and waiting for retirement. Imagine the place you want to settle down. For me that would be in Hawaii, enjoying the beaches, the ocean and then sun. But imagine that you spent two full careers in the military, posting up pictures of where you wanted to retire on your walls, screen savers to your computer and on your phone. And then the day you where suppose to retireyou were told that you were not going to be able to enjoy retirement at all the way you thought. All the plans prepping to enter your promise land and you are refused your retirement benefits and you end up going to another job and die before you ever set foot where you wanted to spend retirement. Thats what Moses went through. A severe disappointment indeed. But Moses remained faithful still even when he knew that he would not step foot in the promise land. What a man of faith. He remained faithful to God because He knew that He served a good God and that his hope was not on earth but with God in heaven. His promise land was dwelling with his loving God forever in heaven. My prayer for myself and for all of us would be ready to to give up our most deepest hopes and dreamsand say, “Thy will be done”! Are we holding our life’s deepest purpose with a loose hand? It would be wise for us not to hold onto our glory with a tight fist but be ready to let go of it for the glory of His kingdom.

God’s Devine Appointment

That is why I am excited today. Because I hope you can say that you have a deeper trust in God and you believe that when He says He is going to do something that you know with every part of your being that He will be faithful to do exactly what He says He is going to do.

And when we can trust Him like that we can have a hope in the promises that we will see throughout the book Revelation.

We see in chapter 34 that Moses died according to the Word of the Lord!All the details of Moses death was pre ordained by God. The time, place and circumstances had been arranged by God. Our deaths have been preordained and God is in control of every minute of our life. He will not let us take our last breath until He is ready for us to do so. That brings me comfort that God is in complete control of my life. He was in complete control of Moses life as well. We might be tempted to question God on why He did not let Moses enter the promise land. But Moses died according to Gods divine appointment. He died without seeing the end result of his life’s work. But as I ponder this I realized that sometimes we as humans think that our work is something that it isn’t. We see in the Bible that David thought it was his life’s work to build the temple but it was not for him to build it. It was Solomon his son. And leading the Israelites into the promise land was not Moses life work either. It was never going to be him to walk them through its borders. It was never Moses job to give rest to Israel because the law gives no rest to its people and it can’t bring them salvation. But only Jesus Christ brings us into grace and truth. If Moses was to bring them into the promise land then it would seem to teach us that rest would be obtained from the law. But as Moses was laid to sleep by divine hands it was those same hands that would give us a new covenant that would give us salvation through the death and resurrection of His son.

Conclusion

Our goal in going through this treasure trove of promises is that we will have a hope in Gods promises to us about heaven and our eternity with Him.

As we conclude the book of Deuteronomy let me conclude this sermon with more more thought!Moses death was according to Gods divine favour. Moses had no regrets. His death was the highlight of his life because he was faithful to the job God gave him. He was to lead Gods people throu

Now I pray that you be patient with me because this is a difficult book and I am relying on the Holy Spirit to have His words come out of my mouth and that the truth will be heard and it will be written on your hearts.

We will be looking in . But before we do lets go to Him in prayer!

Vision of the Son of Man

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Author of Revelation

As I have mentioned that this is a difficult book of the Bible to understand and a lot of Christians have a misunderstanding of this book because they don’t properly understand it.

Some Christians say this book isn’t needed because we will find out about heaven once we get there.

But I disagree with them with every fiber of my being. The book of Revelation is a book that is desperately needed for us to read and understand so that we can be excited and have a hope for our eternal future.

Now we see right off the bat that John identifies himself.

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom

When John got this revelation the church was about to go through horrific prosecution. We saw that in the book of Acts.

But the church grew through the persecution of Christians and its because they had a hope that wasn’t founded or dependent on anything this world could offer.

It was founded in Jesus and in the promises found in this book.

We will not have the time to go through everything in the Book of Revelation but I would strongly encourage you to go deeper into this book on your own, with your families to uncover the beautiful promises that we get to look forward to.

Seven Stars

In verse 16 we read that The Son of Man was holding In his right hand seven stars,

And then in verse 20 we read

the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches

The seven stars are said to be angels, or they are messengers, or as many have said ministers of the Gospel.

And we see that they are being held and in Christ possession.

And the image we see here is lampstands and stars being held.

Now why are lampstands needed? They are needed for us to see at night.

They are not needed during the day because the Sun shines so bright that there is no darkness during the day.

But the lampstands are for the darkness at night. To bring forth light into the darkness.

And the stars are there to bring forth some light so the darkness does not have full dominion over the night sky.

Have you ever been camping or looked up into the night sky and seen the brilliance of the stars shining all around you?

The stars bring forth a comfort to us, a hope to us that when we look up that we don’t just see darkness. That light is still present around us.

Because if we looked up into the sky and the stars were not there, we would see a thick darkness of night that is greatly intensified.

The darkness would be like what the Israelites felt in their hearts as they looked upon the evil of Pharoah in Egypt before God sent Moses to say,

“Let my People Go!!!!”

But we see here that Jesus....who in verse eight, which we read last week....The Alpha and Omega....has possession of all the light that comes to this world through the people who preach the Gospel.

You see the full glory of God could not dwell on Earth now because it would consume us.

The same way the Sun would consume us if it dwelled any closer to us.

So Jesus used the glimer of a star to show a peek at His glory

And He doesn’t leave the stars to fend for themselves hovering around in the darkness but we see that the stars are held tight in His right hand. He is the one who created the stars and He is the one who ordains His words to be spoken through His servants. His messengers.

And we all may be despised and rejected from the world who hates the truth of His Word....Who hates Jesus…But why should we fear the world if we are held tight in His right hand?

ESV

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ holds the seven stars in His right hand. Does this not teach us our entire dependance upon Him? For stars that are shining on their own strength will burn out and be forgotten. But Christ’s stars will be shinning in Him and in His strength forever.

So fear not because you are in His right hand and even though the Devil will be wandering to and fro trying to extinguish your light he will be doing so in vain.

Because not even the prince of darkness has the power to stop what Christ has already won.

The church should pray that the Lord our Christ would raise amongst us more stars that sing and speak of His glory.

I think today we need more faithful ministries. People who love Jesus and can’t wait to tell people about His love for us.

We do not need more shooting stars. They are here ad gone in an instant. But we need more stars that are steady who have burning hearts and trumpet voices to proclaim the who truth about the Gospel.

I will have you pray that God gives us preachers, ministries and faithful Christians that will sound off His glory at every square inch of this planet.

Sharp Two Edged Sword

We see in verse 16 that

“from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword”

What we have to remember about the stars is that without the power of the Jesus Christ they would have never been created.

Let’s remember that we cannot put our faith in the messenger of His light. The Power behind the messenger is Jesus.

We read, “ Out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword”

Hear that. Out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword. And that tells us that it wasn’t the power of the stars but out of His mouth goes all the strength which has won Him the keys to death and Hades.

Our true source of power only comes through Jesus Christ. We don’t have our own power. We can’t rely on our strength to win souls for Christ or gain favor for eternal membership into heaven.

We barrow our strength, our power and our light. But the power that has already defeated Satan, who has conquered sin and death lie alone with Jesus.

And as John points out that the power is in His Word and His Word alone. My explanation of the Gospel, good or bad will not, will not save you but His Word that He speaks into your heart has the power to grant eternal freedom. To change your life for eternity.

You may remember that before you were a Christian you have heard sermons of truth, of Gods love. But the words fell on your ears and heart in vain.

And then you recall that you heard that sermon. The sermon that hit you so hard that made you fall down in repentance. Asking Him to be your savior. Desperately needing all of Him.

That time that was the Word coming directly from Jesus’ mouth. The sword from His mouth landed on you and bringing you to repentance and relationship with Him.

The Word offends the world. And it promises to cut it in half with all of His power. We should not look to tamper with His word, to dull the sword so it won’t offend.

Let us know that the true power of the Church does not lie in us. But from Jesus Christ Himself.

His Face

“and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

Hearing the word of God from pastors, reading more about Him in books are great. We rely so much of the interpretations of man that we sometimes forget to go straight to the source.

I have lived in Tucson for the past 19 years and I have felts the intensity of the sun summer after summer. And sometimes a walk out of a building that has had the air conditioning on so strong that I was freezing.

I guess here in Minot we know what real freezing is.

But after being cold and you walk in the direct sunlight and you feel the warmth. It takes away any coldness that is residing in your bones and brings warmth to your whole body.

We don’t feel that same warmth from the stars at night. We are glad they are there but they were never designed to have us bath in its warmth.

Let’s be grateful for the stars that He has given us because they point directly to His face. Live in communion with Him because you are His people and He is your God.

Communion

I am going to ask the ushers to come up to the front as we get ready for communion.

But I want to highlight something as we go though communion. We have already seen the Hope that we have in Him.

And what I haven’t talked about in this sermon was one amazing fact that should give us all the Hope we need.

We talked about the stars and the lampstands, the two edged sword and Jesus face.

But the fact that is most amazing is that Jesus is alive. He is alive right now preparing a place for us. Waiting on the Father to give us our final Exodus. That He may come back and collect us for Himself.

He was a God who willingly climbed on the cross to die for us. But before that horrific and most amazing day but broke bread for the last time with His disciples.

He broke the bread symbolizing that He was broken for the church. And then He raised the glass of wine and said as often as you drink of this remember that my blood was poured out for you.

Related Media

Related Sermons