Revelation 1:12-18 (The Jesus That John Saw, Jeff Kliewer)

The Danger of Worshiping a Figment of Jesus

I'll never forget a missionary couple that I knew, and sadly as they returned from the mission field, their oldest son rebelled against the Lord and wandered off into sin, and fell deeply into sin, even into homosexuality, and prostitution, and all kinds of just debauchery.

He turned completely away from the Lord, and he lived that way for a number of years until gloriously the Lord revealed himself to this young man, and this young man came back to the faith, now knowing the true Christ for himself.

My parents were ministering to a young lady who was struggling with kleptomania. She was a thief, and she just wouldn't stop stealing, and this particular young missionary, having returned from the field, fallen away from the Lord, but then come back to the Lord, he came to my parents house, and I visited at that time.

We all got together to talk to this young lady, because she claimed to be a Christian, and yet she was still bound in sin. I'll never forget what this young guy said to her. She talked about how she was saved, and yet how she continued to steal, and it was just something that she would never get over, and believe that she was bound by this addiction to stealing.

And this young man turned to her and said, I think the Jesus that you worship is actually a figment of your imagination. I don't think you know the true Jesus. I think you know a being that you call Jesus, but I don't think you know the true Jesus.

And those words seemed so harsh to me when he said them. He called into question whether she was genuinely saved, and he painted for her a picture of the possibility that a person can claim the name Jesus, but actually be worshiping a different being altogether.

I grew up in Florida, and every once in a while people would come visit us, and that was the only time that we would go to the theme parks. One of the theme parks that we would go to was Epcot Center, and the vivid memory I have from Epcot Center was this giant pyramid made of glass, and inside of it was a character that appeared all over the place.

His name was Figment, and I loved Figment. And of course, the idea of Figment was he was a figment of your imagination. I think he was some kind of purple dinosaur with horns and a ridiculous little being, but his name was Figment.

Sadly, I think that many people worship a being that they call Jesus that is actually a figment of their own imagination. One place that I see this in the Scripture is in Acts chapter 19. In Acts 19, Paul the Apostle knows the true Jesus, and he comes and preaches the true Jesus, and somebody who's listening to him sees that there's power in that name, because the demons have to submit to him.

The name of Jesus is powerful, and so this guy gets his brothers together, and these seven sons of Sceva go to a demon-possessed man, and they say, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches to come out of him.

Now notice, this is not a Jesus that they know. Rather, in their minds, I think they picture whoever Jesus to be as like a genie in a bottle, a magic formula, a name that they can name, and if they use that name, demons have to run.

But instead of the demon running, when these seven sons of Sceva tried to cast the demon out in the name of Jesus, the demon turned on those seven men and beat them within an inch of their lives. The demon-possessed man did this, tore their clothes, they ran out of that place naked and bleeding, because they used a name that did not correspond with the true Jesus.

They were preaching a figment of their own imagination, and that figment had no power over the evil one. It's very important, brothers and sisters, that we worship the true Jesus of the Bible and not a figment of our own imagination.

It's very important that we learn who he is, not by who we want him to be, because if we do that, we will make him look exactly like ourselves. The Jesus that we worship will be just who we want him to be, but rather we must learn who he is from the revealed picture of him in the Scripture.

This is what we're seeing in Revelation chapter 1 today, so go with me. We're in verses 12 to 18 today. John sees the true Jesus. Francis Schaeffer, as far back as 1968, saw this problem. He recognized the problem that people invent figments of their own imagination and they call that figment Jesus.

Here's what Schaeffer said, I have come to the point where when I hear the word Jesus, which means so much to me because of the person of the historic Jesus and his work, I listen carefully because I have with sorrow become more afraid of the word Jesus than almost any other word in the modern world.

He says he's afraid when people use the word Jesus because he's not sure that they know who they're talking about. The word is used as a contentless banner. Increasingly over the past few years, the word Jesus, separated from the content of the Scriptures, has been the enemy of the Jesus of history.

The Jesus who died and rose and is coming again and who is the eternal Son of God. Schaeffer says that like a contentless banner, people raise the name Jesus. Everybody will talk about Jesus and everybody will claim Jesus, but many of those who use that name are worshiping a figment of their own imagination.

They have not seen the Jesus of the Scripture and so it's a powerless idol that cannot save. Let's see the true one, should we? This is what he looks like. Revelation 1, 12 to 18, then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands. 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. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters. 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. 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 and the living one.

I died and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. This is a picture of the true Jesus. This is the real one. This is who he really is. It's an image of power and brilliance and majesty and glory.

The highest splendor. This is the one that John saw. The Jesus that John saw is the true Jesus. So notice first of all, verse 12. He is the head of the church. The true Jesus dwells in local churches.

Now in a day of privatized religion, where the church has become the enemy of the state, the church is no longer respected in society but pushed to the sides, to the margins. Guess where Jesus is to be found?

Here in the local assemblies, in the local church. Verse 12, then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning, what's the first thing he sees? Seven golden lampstands. Those lampstands represent the seven churches of Asia, which themselves represent churches in general.

Because every church on the planet can find a description of itself in one of those seven churches. I hope we're more like Philadelphia than Laodicea or Ephesus. I hope that we are standing strong and though we have little strength, we have not denied his word.

Every church in America and around the world is pictured in one of the seven churches or a combination of a few of them. But this is a very important point. You want to know where Jesus is and what he looks like.

Where do you go to look for him? Go to church. Go to church? He dwells in the midst of the local church, in the assembly. So value the church as the place where Jesus is. When we gather on a Sunday morning, he's here.

He is here in the assembly. He is with us. He is here in the building by his Holy Spirit, indwelling every true believer in this place and come together as a body. He is our head. The head of the body of Christ is Christ himself.

He's here in the local assembly. So when John turns to see the voice that was speaking to him, he sees first of all lampstands, the churches. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a Son of Man.

Of course that Son of Man reference is to Daniel chapter 7 verse 13. When the Ancient of Days is presented, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days, but then comes one like a Son of Man. And this again is the Messiah.

Jesus fulfills this title and in the book of Mark and throughout the Gospels, you'll see he's very often called the Son of Man. This is Jesus. Why is he called the Son of Man? He's fully human. He has taken on flesh.

He's become a man. But he is the promised Son of Man. The new Adam who's come to represent us and then die as a substitute on our behalf. And so how is this Son of Man dressed? Notice this in verse 13.

Very important. He's clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. What does the image of the golden sash around his chest mean to us? I think the giveaway here is the sash along with the robe.

Prophets often wore robes, sometimes kings, but the priest had a priestly garment, a priestly robe. And if we were to go back to Leviticus 16 1 to 5, we'll see that one of the distinguishing marks of the high priest was a sash.

It was very long. The rabbis and different tradition says that it could wrap around the waist of a priest multiple times. And so what I think they would do, and many scholars agree with that, they would wrap around the waist and then come up like this around the shoulder covering the heart and the chest.

This sash that identified the high priest. Jesus is our high priest. When John looked, the first thing he saw was the sash. It caught his eye. This golden sash, what does that represent? That the priest has come and perfectly finished his work.

The golden perfection, the sash of the high priest represents that he has come and done what he came to do. There's only two places in the New Testament where the word tetelestai is used. Both of them within two verses of each other, John 19 verse 28 and verse 30.

When Jesus hanging on the cross, about to breathe his last and commit his spirit to the Father, says, it is finished. It is finished. What is finished? The work that Jesus came to do. The work that I could not do for myself.

The work that I could not do for myself to rescue myself by being good enough to be the man that God called me to be. I can't do it. I fall short of his glory. But the Son of Man has come as a priest and accomplished for me the thing I could not do.

Dying on the cross, what did he say? Tetelestai. It is finished. The work is finished. And so we see him first of all here as a high priest. He's the priest that finished the work on our behalf. The Son of Man.

Next, verse 14. The hairs of his head were white. Take great comfort in that, many of you. Myself as well. Like white wool, like snow. I have a true confession here. This year I had shaved my beard and when it began to grow back in, in December, I realized it was, it was pretty white.

It used to be a little splotchy. It was, so you know what I did? I touched it up with some Just For Men. See? Look how brown it is. But that's not natural. When I came, when I came to this text, I was rebuked by that.

I said, wait a minute. The white hair, the snow of his head is a crown. Isn't that what the Scripture says? Proverbs 16, verse 31. The white, the grayness of hair is a crown on the head. It pictures the wisdom of the Lord.

He is perfect wisdom. Having lived, he is wise in experience and the hairs of his head being white, like white wool, like snow. Picture the wisdom of God. Now the world looks for wisdom in human reasoning, doesn't it?

But the wisdom of God is not what any man would expect. Human reasoning says you can do it. You know, try harder. You can be good. You can be acceptable to God. You can do it, says the world. So here's your religious system.

Follow this path and God will accept you. That's human reasoning. The wisdom of God is a person. The wisdom of God is not you and your effort to please God, but the person, Jesus Christ. And the world considers this foolishness.

How could it be that God would judge the world not based on your merit and how good you are, but based on Him? He will judge the world by a man, the man Christ Jesus. This is the wisdom of God. Foolishness to the world, it's counterintuitive.

It's nothing that we would have thought on our own, but it is the revelation of the gospel, the power of God, salvation to those who believe. He is wisdom. Wisdom is a person. In Proverbs, you begin to see a picture of this develop, where wisdom is often personified in the early chapters of the Proverbs.

It's personified. She's calling out from the gates. Wisdom is a person. But in the New Testament, we see this final revelation that He is the wisdom of God. You see that in His hair. Next, His eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. This is a picture of power. This is the picture of Jesus as a consuming fire. His eyes are on fire.

His feet are like burnished bronze, as if He just stepped out of a furnace. The furnace of His suffering, where He was made perfect in obedience. Not that He ever sinned, but made perfect through suffering, according to Hebrews, because His obedience demonstrated the perfection that He had.

A lived experience of obedience. Obedient even unto death. This is the consuming fire. Now, I think many people in the world, when they picture Jesus, it's a lot like how they picture the Father in heaven.

Just an old, happy man. And Jesus is up there, and yes, He sees everything, but when He sees a sin, He kind of winks at it, or maybe just shrugs His shoulders and goes about His day. That's not the Jesus that we see here, is it?

His eyes that see everything are on fire, penetrating, not just to see the action that we do, but penetrating right to the motivation of our hearts. His eyes see, and He sees with passion. There's passion in His eyes.

He's not just passive. He sees our lives with passion. He loves us with passion. This is a passionate picture of God. There's heat coming from this. It's a flame of fire. His feet are like burnished bronze.

The Bible says, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your word. We go through a furnace of affliction. The sufferings, according to 1st Peter, that we endure are for the refining of our faith.

We're refined by the fire. The dross of our life is burned away as God allows us to go through certain sufferings in this life. Jesus went before us and is that High Priest who can identify with us in our sufferings.

What are you going through today? You wonder why the suffering that's come upon your life, and you wonder, does He still love you? Why would He let you go through the things that you're suffering? The answer is He loves you so much you go through the suffering that you do.

The afflictions of this life are the removing of the dross. His penetrating eyes are that fire that sees your life, and He's not content with mediocrity. He's not content that I would dwell in my sin.

The kleptomaniac cannot steal any longer. Those addicted to pornography cannot continue in that. He sees through that. Those addicted to drugs and alcohol, you think it has a grip that cannot be broken.

These eyes can penetrate that grip and break through any stronghold. This is the picture of a holy God, and we're told in Hebrews chapter 13, we picture that mountain that no one dared to touch because Moses had ascended, and if anybody dared to touch that mountain, they would die.

The mountain trembled, and the earth shook. How much more the heavenly city, the holy temple of God, our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 13 says this is holiness personified in the person Jesus Christ, the holy and infinite God in flesh.

Holiness, this is the true Jesus. What else about Him? Verse 16, not only is He the head of the church, the high priest, perfect wisdom, consuming fire, He is the glorious Word, the revelation of God.

He is the express image of the invisible God. He reveals God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What does it mean that He was the Word? He's revealing to us who God is.

What's God like? Look at Jesus. Says here in verse 16, in His right hand He held seven stars, and from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun, shining in full strength.

Isn't that the image that sticks in our minds the most when we think about Revelation 1? It is for me. You picture Jesus with a sword coming out of His mouth. What a stark image that is. Well that sword is the Word of God, the Scriptures.

We're told that in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. The sword comes from His mouth. Well who are the seven stars? There's some debate on this.

Some say it's an angel, a guardian angel, over each individual local church. I favor that view. There's others who say that the word Angelos there, angel, meaning messenger, could refer to whoever has the pulpit, whoever is proclaiming and giving the message of God's Word.

In either case, whether it's the angel typifying the entire church who hear the Word of God, or the preaching of the Word, in either case, the picture here is of the Word going forth to the people. That's what's at issue.

Because even in the case of the seven churches, when you write to the angel of the church of Smyrna or Pergamon or Thyatira, the angel then, by the end of that section, let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So the issue is Revelation. That the sword coming from the mouth of the Son of God is sharp and it needs to be heated. You need to hear the Word of the Lord. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart as you did in the rebellion.

Listen to the Word of God. Let it cut you. When you feel that prick of your conscience, don't harden your heart and cover it over, but let your heart be laid open by the Word of God. He's going to show you that you create idols too.

And there are some idols that need to be ripped out. That's what the Word of God does. It sanctifies us. Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. From His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword.

And finally, in that verse, His face is glowing like the sun in full strength. My job, this is what I want to do every week. In fact, here on the pulpit I have a little 3x5 card posted and taped to it from John 12 21.

It says, Sir, we want to see Jesus. My goal as a preacher on a Sunday morning is to show you Jesus from the Scripture. I want it to be like the sun shining in this place. The glory of the Lord to come and eyes to be opened to say, Jesus is more valuable than anything else in my life.

What is that idol that grabs your attention and you look at it and you love it? Could be a sport that you watch. Could be a video game that you just can't stop playing. Could be anything in your life that begins to take on so much glory that you just look at it and you're fascinated by it and you love it.

My job as a preacher, a messenger, and all of your jobs in your homes, in your families, is to show one another this Jesus. His face was like the sun shining in full strength. He is far more glorious than we picture Him to be.

The figment in my imagination when I picture Jesus, it falls so far short of who He really is. I thank Him that He revealed the truth of who He is to me in Scripture. But one day when I see Him face to face, when it's no longer through a glass dimly, when I look at the face of my Savior, I will fall like a dead man before Him.

Overwhelmed by who He really is. How much more glorious than I thought. That's the next part, verse 17. Not only is He the glorious Word who reveals Himself, He teaches us fear. He's the fear teacher.

And what comes to mind here for me is that song Amazing Grace. There's a line in it. It was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. Michael's gonna lead us in that when we come up at the end here in a minute.

Notice here, when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Recently I've had a couple of times where people have, usually young people, have said I'm having doubts. I'm struggling. I'm worried I might not be saved.

I'm worried I might end up going to hell. And when I get a text message like that from a young person or somebody says that to me, you know what? I love to hear that. Because the first thing I can say to them is this, He does not break off the wounded reed.

And the smoldering wick, He doesn't snuff it out. He only requires mustard seed faith to move a mountain. Your faith doesn't have to be perfect in order for you to be saved. It has to be real. Even if it's small, it'll grow.

But the second thing I love to say is the very sign that you are so worried about this is good. It's a good sign for you that you fear the possibility of hell. That you fear that He is so holy that your sinful self, your wormy sinful self, might not make it to glory.

That's an appropriate fear, isn't it? We should fear the Holy God. There should be an element of fear. You should be afraid to sin. I don't want to be disciplined by my God. And so I'm afraid of sin. And that's good.

But the gospel doesn't end with that bad news. Fear God. That's the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? Proverbs 1, 7, and again in chapter 9. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Notice He's not only the fear giver, but the fear taker.

The fear reliever. Says, but He laid His right hand on me. Isn't that beautiful? This powerful God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, who has a sword coming from His mouth, would condescend to John, who is now prostrate before Him, and lovingly, like a tender father, lay His hand on His shoulder.

And what does He say? Fear not. That expression is repeated, I think, 366 times in the Bible. One for every day, plus sleep year. It's an extra one. Fear not. The love of Jesus to take the fear away. I am the first and the last and the living one.

I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades. Oh death, where is your sting? Christian, we should not be afraid to die. He has removed the sting of death. He conquered death.

He was dead and behold, He is alive. And so He'll raise us with Him too. We need not fear. And the good news here, when He says fear not to John, it's because He is His beloved, His child. He has the new birth.

He believes in the one that God has sent. We need not fear God for salvation when we trust that Jesus died and said, it is finished. Yes, we should still have a healthy respect and awe of Him and even a sense of fear and trembling.

In Isaiah 66, He says, this is the one to whom I will look. The one who trembles at my word. The humble and contrite who trembles at my word. We are to tremble before Him, but He also relieves that fear of damnation.

I'm not afraid of going to hell, even though I fear my God, because I know that I know that I know that Jesus died for me. You can have assurance of your salvation. He puts a seal on you, the promised Holy Spirit, and that Spirit testifies that you are a child of God.

No need to fear. Fear not, little flock. He died for you and He rose. Nothing to fear. Isn't that beautiful? And so He is the fear taker. In closing, be careful to serve the Jesus that John saw and not a figment of your own imagination.

Boldly teach others to do the same. Doesn't every false teacher make a Jesus that looks like them? So Muhammad would make a Jesus who was only a prophet and Mormons make a Jesus who is a descendant of Elohim and who has a father over him and over him and over him and then they become gods and Jesus is just like them.

Just another one of them. No different, no more glorious. False teachers make Jesus's in their own image. Really figments that they call Jesus. We know they do that, but here's the problem. To some degree, we do that as well.

Not making a false Jesus, but failing to see the fullness of the glory that is Him. When we picture Him, we picture Him weaker than He really is. We picture His glory dimmer than it really is. We picture Him less passionate than He is, less loving than He truly is, less holy than He really is.

This is why we go to the Scriptures to see Him for who He really is. Who is He? John saw Him as the head of the church, the high priest, the wisdom of God, the consuming fire, the glorious Word, the fear giver and the fear taker.

But remember, last week when he wrote a hymn to Christ, when he described Him and reminded us of His coming, he's already said ten things about who this Jesus is to him. He said He's the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of kings, the one who loves us, the one who has freed us by His blood, the one who made us a kingdom and priests, the one who's coming on the clouds, the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Do you see a pattern here in Revelation 1? John loves the Jesus that he saw. He can't say enough about Him. It's glorious to John. Let's pray that Jesus would be glorious to us this morning, that we would see Him for who He is.

Let's come up, Michael, worship team. We're going to sing Amazing Grace and when we sing this song, I want you to think of that fear issue. He taught you to fear and He relieved your fear. Let's pray.

So God, thank you so much for this revelation of the Son, so much more glorious than we can imagine. Our minds' eyes cannot paint the picture of all that He is and all He deserves to be in our hearts.

So I pray for us this morning that seeing we would see, that hearing we would truly hear. Open our eyes that we might behold the glory of the Son. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Let's stand.