Resurrection Sunday 2008, Christ Then and Now

Good morning. As we move into the passage that Wayne read for us here this morning, I'd like to invite you. I'd like to invite you to walk the path of John the Apostle. And as you walk the path of John the Apostle, I'd like you to just think for a minute, putting yourself, well, I'd like you to step into John's shoes.

Not those. Who's doing this anyway? There, that's better. Okay. I'd like you to step into John's shoes and just think for a minute what it was like to be John. Here John was writing the very beginnings of this book that Wayne read the first part of for us here. But there was an awful lot that had gone into that. Think about it this way.

Here is John the Apostle who grew up in a fisherman's business household. and grew up around what you see here, the Sea of Galilee. And he had seen Galilee in different times of day and kinds of weather and different circumstances. And certainly he saw a great deal of beauty as he was growing up there. And seeing it from a great number of perspectives, a number of those being inside a boat.

So here's John. First, our Lord called Peter and Andrew, and shortly thereafter, John and James. So here's John helping with his father's fishing business when John and his brother James get the call. And something I'd like to just kind of bring to your attention, John who was behind the kids here, not only does he have the name John, which matches up with the fellow John that we're taking a look at this morning, But also, the Apostle John was probably about John Doyle's age when the Lord called him. Perhaps a little older, but not much. So here is this young man that the Lord calls out of this fishing business there on the Sea of Galilee. You can imagine as the Lord also calls Matthew, the tax collector, and others among the twelve.

You can imagine what John was thinking when he was on the water in the boat. He'd been accustomed to being in boats and to see the Lord walking across the waters. That must have been a memorable event for him. Imagine John who, of course, had been on the boat under all sorts of circumstances when the winds were wild. And even John, an experienced fisherman, Accustomed to being in a boat as much as on his own two feet. And seeing frightening waters and having the Lord calm those waters. Imagine John reflecting on that. Think of John when he was there and the Lord fed the 5,000 with a very small amount of food. Multiplying it miraculously. That got his attention. Imagine John for the days and weeks and months and even years that passed where he walked right alongside the Lord, listening to the Lord's every word and hanging on every comment, every word, every thought that poured out of our Lord's mouth.

Imagine John there when the Lord insisted, I must wash your feet. Imagine John seeing that. Just to get some kind of a context, according to the rabbi's rules, the rabbis were not allowed to ask their own disciples to wash their feet, to wash the rabbi's feet. So for Christ, who would have been seen as the rabbi, to say, I must wash yours, completely blown their circuits.

Imagine John seeing Lazarus raised from the dead after being dead for several days. That got his attention. I'm certain he remembered it well. Imagine John, I'm sure, puzzled at first there at the Last Supper to see Judas dismissed to go out and carry out his betrayal and to have the Lord say, do this in remembrance of me. Imagine John when, a very short time later, the Lord was out in the Garden of Gethsemane. A very short time later, he's out there seeing the Lord praying with intensity. Imagine John as the proceedings of the night continued on to the house of Caiaphas.

We see the steps right here. The house of Caiaphas, matter of fact, it's only a matter of a few blocks away from where they had had that last supper. And Peter is at the gate. They won't let him in. John, however, has connections and gets Peter in. Only it wasn't all that great a time because there Peter denied that he knew the Lord.

Imagine what John is thinking. Imagine John's memory. Imagine John as he stood there with Jesus' mother Mary near the cross, watching, overwhelmed with emotion, I'm sure, puzzled, baffled. And as the Lord gives him care, responsibility, entrusts his mother to John. Imagine John as the hours went by and time went by that early morning. Oh, at first it wasn't John and Peter. At first it was some women that were among their troop who showed up at the tomb. What? What's this? The stones rolled away.

That's not supposed to be. The Roman soldiers have been here guarding things we don't understand. There's nobody here. The tomb's empty. What happened? Imagine then these women going to John and to Peter and the others and saying, the body's not there! He's missing! And Peter and John with wild excitement running to the tomb only to find out they're right. What the women said was correct.

There is no body. in these grave clothes. The stone has been rolled away, but there's nobody in this tomb. What did they do? What happened? Imagine what was going through John's mind. Imagine as the stone was rolled away, the soldiers gone, the grave clothes empty, the tomb, not one inhabitant. Imagine as the Lord appeared to them.

At first, without Thomas. Imagine being John, trying to convince Thomas. Oh yeah, he really is alive. Thomas is in. Oh no, no way. No, I won't believe it, not unless I touch it and see it for myself. So he does. The Lord allows him, invites Thomas and all the others. Come, see, touch, check out for yourself. Thomas, of course, remained skeptical, right? Not so much. My Lord and my God.

Imagine what John was remembering in those times. Put yourselves some days later with John and the rest of the apostles, lest Judas, plus Matthias, at this time here on the Mount of Olives, they're gathered together and the disciples see Christ ascend. Imagine being there at that moment. What are you thinking if you're in John's place? What can be going through your mind? Imagine the Lord ascending and then being told he will come again as you have seen him depart here. Imagine what was going through John's mind. Now let's step through some decades of time.

Here is John, and this is also in a consolidated form on page one of your handout, similar chart. John is called by Christ to be his disciple, along with the others. This is just a few years before our Lord is crucified, about 30 AD. Before 50 AD, John and Peter and James, James our Lord's brother, meet with Paul in Jerusalem in this gathering that's recorded in Galatians chapter 2.

And so now some time has gone by since the Lord had been with them, maybe about a little less than two decades. Imagine a couple decades and a little bit more later, the Roman military comes and destroys the city of Jerusalem. They completely demolished the temple that John had grown up with, the temple in which they'd seen the Lord. Now, we get to the passage that we're talking about this morning.

Here it is, 95 AD, thereabouts, John writes Revelation shortly before his death. It has been by this time some 65 years since John has seen the Lord by any record that we have. And when he last saw the Lord, what happened? The Lord had ascended into the heavenlies right in front of them, right in front of John and all the others.

In the intervening years, John had gone from Israel, where he'd grown up, where he had seen the Lord, where he was very familiar with everything. Now, as of the writing of this book, to the Isle of Patmos, he had been put by Demetian into exile on this island. It was a slave labor camp, and John was among those who were forced to work even in his old years on that slave labor camp island. There is a well-done, I think, dramatic presentation that I'd easily recommend, St. John in Exile. Unfortunately, it's older mode videocassette.

You're welcome to borrow. Come see me about it. It's also available, Nancy tells me, on Netflix, and you can get it at other sources. Great presentation, nonetheless. Here's a view of the Isle of Patmos from a cave that is known traditionally as St. John's Cave. And while it's not absolutely confirmed, it may very well have been the cave that John inhabited during this time. So it's kind of amazing.

Take the houses away there along the shore, and you have pretty much the scene that John saw as he was writing this book that we're studying here this morning. Here is John writing the book of Revelation, about 95 AD, some 65 years after he had seen the Lord ascend.

He was likely by this time the last living apostle. All the others from any record that we have, biblical and otherwise, from any record had died for their faith, died martyrs for their faith. We don't have time to go through the account of every single one. as it is written in an extra biblical account, was crucified, but refused to be crucified right side up like the Lord. So he requested, as the account goes, to be crucified upside down. Matthew was killed by having wooden stakes driven through his body. And the record has it that he screamed out the gospel with every last breath that he had as they were driving the stakes through his body. The record goes similarly for every single one of the apostles. Every one of them except John having died a martyr's death.

The part of the book of Revelation we're going to focus on this morning is obviously the very beginning part. But this is the beginning of the last time that John will see the Lord. as John is here on earth, before going to see the Lord face to face. This is a very special and unique revelation that we've got by the Lord's clear intent. This was specifically written because the Lord told John to write it. John wrote it. Remember all those little pictures that we saw and the little events that we highlighted? John wrote it with all these memories in mind.

Can you imagine having now a glimpse of the Lord, thinking back, but this was the Lord that I saw calm the seas. This was the Lord that I saw just eat with us regularly like everyone else. This was the Lord that I saw break up the bread and the fish so that thousands could eat. This was that, Lord. This was the one. I saw him crucified. I saw him resurrected. I saw him ascend. That's the one I'm getting to see.

Can you imagine John's perspective on this? This was a phenomenal thing for him to be able to see and to record, as we're privileged to read this morning. This is amazing stuff. Nobody on earth would have the perspective and the memories of this Lord as John would. And now we're privileged to read it here this morning with all of John's thoughts of the things that have taken place.

Here he is privileged to see Jesus Christ as He is now. As He is now. The crucified, buried, risen, ascended, and seated Lord Jesus Christ. That's the one. that John saw. That's the one we're reading about this morning. John had seen Christ as he was. Seen him crucified very personally. Known where he was buried enough to be able to run to the tomb. Saw him not only seeing the empty tomb, but seeing the risen Lord multiple times. seen Him, at least from the earthly side of it, ascend into the heavenlies. And now, this is the seated Lord that He is getting to view here.

So keep this in mind about the book of Revelation as we study through it. One of the things we addressed when we covered Revelation, the entire book, about six years ago, is we kind of spelled out some things that are helpful to understand the book. Keep in mind this, while the Greeks would describe things and they wanted to know, how does it look? When you put it all together, does it look good? That's how the Greeks would see things. And by the way, in our culture, that's how we tend to look at things. How does it look when I put the parts and pieces together?

It is one reason why most people, when they read the book of Revelation, think, what on earth is that about? baffled by it, because it is not describing how things look through the eyes of appearance, but rather instead, it's the Jewish approach, what do each of those symbols mean? That's the Jewish mindset. The Greek way is to look at things like, are songs, do they rhyme? The Jews would rhyme the meanings, not the sounds. So the thing to remember is roses are red and violets are bluish. When you read Revelation, remember he's Jewish. Okay? All right. Okay. So keep that in mind. Okay.

You have on page two of your handout, we're going to jump ahead briefly, page two of your handout, this very odd looking illustration. Some of you have seen it before and that's fine. But you have on the page of your hand this very odd looking illustration.

What is it? It is a pictorial description of all the figures of speech, the Jewish descriptions of the Song of Solomon towards Solomon's bride or lover. And so these are Jewish romantic descriptions. And again, this is a lot like Revelation because it's not how does it look, it's what does it mean.

And let me give you some examples. You can study this on your own, but for example, would a guy these days expect to get any sort of positive response out of, your hair is like a flock of goats? Oh, it gets better. Your neck is like the Tower of David, built with rows of stones on which are hung a thousand shields. Let me tell you, that's really good looking, right? Oh, this is great.

Your belly is like a heap of wheat. That's a bad pickup line, let me tell you. So anyway, this is intended not to show you how to romance a woman, but rather to show you this is the Jewish way of describing things with Jewish figures of speech. The Jews focus not on what does it look like when you put it together, but what does it mean? What's the significance? Another thing that will help us here is 70% of the book of Revelation comes straight out of the Old Testament. That's over two-thirds of the book of Revelation is straight out of the Old Testament.

So as you're reading through it and you say, what on earth is that? There's better than a two out of three chance that it's already in the Old Testament and you can get greater insight from reading the Old Testament. Here is a Bible book case of all the Bible books, 66 books, and here's Revelation, the very last one. John being the last author had a great advantage and so do you. And that's that as John wrote, He wrote with all the 39 books of the Old Testament as background, and most of the book of Revelation, like I say, 70%, comes straight out of the Old Testament. For the other 26 books of the New Testament, John drew upon those too, because he was aware of all of them at that point in time. We can use all of the Bible to help us understand the book of Revelation.

Great insight. So, one more thing. John often used like or as to make comparisons from the first chapter to the last and just the illustrations that we have here on page two I think can give you an idea repeatedly like this, like this, like that, or as that. Okay. John says in this passage, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. Now John was in spirit, or it became in spirit, is the way it was written.

It was a mode of special revelation. The book of Ezekiel, remember we said that 70% of revelation is out of the Old Testament? The book of Ezekiel has this similar mode of revelation. Also, you find Peter in the book of Acts, and Paul as well, had this similar mode of special revelation. That's what he's referring to here.

The Lord's Day, certainly there are others with other views and opinions, I'll admit that. The Lord's Day, I believe, is clearly Sunday. John had several followers, people that we know were followers of his or were kind of second generation followers of John. And we kind of have the contact genealogy, if you will. And these people who all lived in that same area, and at the same time, or shortly thereafter, all referred to on the Lord's Day, and by it they meant what we call Sunday, or the first day of the week.

Then it says, a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet. Well this, again, guess what? The loud voice thing? Right out of the Old Testament. This was a loud voice, not always, but was often the voice of the Lord. And so that's one thing that's a clue right there. Often the voice of the Lord, so it's confirmation, is it? And we'll soon see the answer is yes.

Trumpets, which John had actually grown up with every time he'd go and visit the temple. And even during the book of Acts, during the early part, we read about John and Peter going to the temple. At the temple, there were trumpets used throughout the day to announce various things and the timing of various things using trumpets. The priests were the ones who blew the trumpets.

And it's interesting when the Romans, as we noted earlier, tore apart Jerusalem and specifically the temple. Jesus said not one stone would be left upon another and that is true. Archaeologists have found exactly that. One of the stones here has engraved in it in Hebrew, the trumpeter's place.

This is in the temple, the place where one of the priests would stand and make his trumpet announcements. What does that mean here? John, hearing the sound of a trumpet, would think, a priestly sound. A priestly sound. It would have that reminder to him. Here is what John was told.

Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. Now, we think of a book and we typically tend to think of something that's bound on one side and that sort of thing. Such a thing, a book like this, bound on one side, None of those ever came into existence until shortly after John, writing the last book of the Bible, had died. So John never saw a book like this. It was far more likely a scroll.

But even more importantly, There was a specific audience that John was told to write it to, and these are the seven churches of Asia. We have them shown here on the map, Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These were the seven churches that are listed there right in the passage. These are the ones, imagine John, he had been in exile, but prior to that, for probably something like at least a couple of decades, was there in and among those churches, primarily at Ephesus, but among these other churches, as he was there in exile on the Isle of Patmos, we see it marked here on the map, as he was there, you can imagine John being concerned, I'm concerned about each of those churches, thinking about them, praying about them, maybe even having messengers come back and forth. These churches were on John's heart and mind. concern for the churches.

How are they doing? What's going on with them? And the Lord's saying, write. I'm about to have you write something to these churches. This whole book is going to go to them. And John's thinking, oh, good. I would love to be able to give them a message. A message especially that the Lord said, write.

Now, it talks about seven golden lampstands. And many pictures, such as this one here, have a seven-branched candelabra. a thing of a menorah, and I suppose that's possible, but the wording here seems to point rather to lampstands on which a lamp is placed, and then there would be individual stands around it, so that seems to be more likely the picture there. So here is the Lord Jesus Christ to appear with these lampstands. We'll see shortly.

There is this one like a son of man phrase that comes in there, and rather than that being something rather vague, like one like a son of man, what's a like a son of man? It is a phrase that comes exactly out of Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. Here's John, who is Jewish, raised on the book of Daniel. Even the Lord himself referred to the book of Daniel.

And John, when he would hear that phrase, would say, oh, this is Christ. This is the Messiah. Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek both mean anointed, the anointed one. And so that's what John is thinking when he hears this. One like a son of man, that's Christ. I walked with him. One like a son of man, that's Christ. I saw him crucified. One like a son of man, that's Christ. He's the one that rose from the dead. I saw him myself.

Now, and this is on page 3 in your handout, if you can track with us here, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet and girded across the chest with a golden sash. This pictures a Jewish priest. And we have a couple of artist's illustrations here. One would be a picture of the high priest who would have a sash.

And the sash was typically worn up high. And the reason was that the priests were constantly moving. And they had to even move some heavy things around. So they put the sash up high in order to have some mobility. But the robe would go down to the feet as well. So there was that pattern. And that's what is described here. Now, why is that important? Boy, I'm glad you thought of that. What an insightful question. Why is it important? We don't have an earthly temple building. As a matter of fact, we read how in 70 A.D. that earthly temple was destroyed.

But Jesus Christ is now our heavenly high priest. He is the one who ministers before the Father, who ministers in the heavenlies on our behalf now. That is why when John turns around and he starts to see I hear a priestly sound with the trumpet. I see a priestly image in front of me. He's getting the picture. And this is the Lord now. He is, right now, our heavenly high priest. He begins to describe, and this is where it's very important that we get, you know, that little ditty. You know, roses are red and violets are bluish.

This is where you've got to remember that John is Jewish because This is where we got to look at not what does it look like. If you look like you put the thing together, this looks horrific. It's what does it mean. The hair like wool or snow picture the wisdom that comes with age. And that's not my cooking it up.

That's out of the book of Daniel and out of the book of Micah and the references you have there. The white collar also pictured moral and spiritual purity. When we went through the book of Isaiah, out of the first chapter, Isaiah 118, and we sang, as we've done otherwise, white as snow.

That's the picture here. There are all those things. There's the wisdom of age. There is moral and spiritual purity pictured in this hair white like wool. Eyes with a flame of fire. Now that, if you just look at it and say, what does that look like? That's actually kind of scary. Okay? I don't know how many of you have seen people with eyes like a flame of fire. Usually that's not a good sign.

But, what is he talking about here? It's not what it looks like, it's what it means. Christ's eyes with a flame of fire would picture penetrating judgment. A judgment that sifts through what is eternal and lasting and what is real. And again, it's not me cooking it up. You can look there in the passages in Romans and 1 Corinthians that we have listed there. Again, Scripture explains what all this means. This is what Vern thinks.

For a believer, this is an evaluation for discipline, as we are here, or for reward. You know that the Lord is motivated strongly to look to you as a believer and say, how can I reward you? That's His hope and intent. When you go before the Lord, that's the question He's going to be asking. How can I reward you? That's what He wants.

Isn't that gracious? To get rid of the rest of the things, it's not that He's so much focused on, oh, you blew it here. Boy, you fell short there. That's not His focus. His focus is, how can I reward you? That's the question he has in mind. In fact, the very last chapter of Revelation, some of the last things the Lord says is, Behold, I am coming and my reward is with me. That's what he's thinking about. He's not looking at how he can condemn you. He's looking at how he can reward you. That's his mindset. He says, I'd love to reward you. And what is the reward?

A capacity to glorify him forever. These feet of bronze would picture being purified of sin. Here's more of this flame and of fire. The book of Ezekiel, we've got a passage there. I could give some others as well, but that's sufficient. Bronze is also heavy and solid, picturing God's unchanging character and total faithfulness.

God makes a promise to Abraham 4,000 years ago, as of today. God makes a promise to Abraham, and guess what? He is going to keep it. He's not going to say, oh, I forgot. Or, no, it's not so important to me as it once was. He makes a promise. He's unchanging. His character doesn't change. He is ever, ever, ever faithful.

Having a voice like the sound of many waters. That means a voice that is great and overwhelming with power. Now, there were a few times during the times when my kids were growing up when they would have described my voice like this. But no, this is a great and overpowering voice. Have you ever been in that kind of noise level? One point in time, I went to Yosemite National Park, and if you go to the base of one of those falls, you can hardly talk over it. It is just huge, roaring sound, and it overwhelms any other attempt to speak or communicate or anything of the sort. This voice is one that, boy, that's all you can hear.

In his right hand, he held the seven stars. The right hand in biblical cultures... Now see, I'm left-handed. Matter of fact, this is really confusing. Ambidextrous means both hands are right-handed? I don't know. Anyway. And not only that, sinister is bad, and that's left-handed. So, anyway.

But in the biblical culture, The right hand was the hand of authority and blessing and honor and protection. And so it isn't just that he puts his hand on him, certainly he does that. And we'll find passages that make reference to just that. But also the right hand, it's specifically that one.

Now for the seven stars, you might look at it and say, ooh, let's figure out what's this very strange mystical meaning on this. Guess what? It's real plain. Oh, here's something I forgot. I've got to tell you. When we studied Revelation six and a half years ago, one of the things I said is, Revelation is one of the easiest books in the whole New Testament to understand and interpret. Piece of cake. Piece of cake. No problem at all understanding Revelation.

Here is one of the reasons why. Revelation very often gives you the meaning, if you look carefully, at what something pictures or symbolizes. 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 angels or messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Any mystery about what it means? No. No mystery at all. It says exactly what it is. And the book of Revelation does that dozens of times. You look at something and say, I wonder what that is? Well, read what it says. Not so tough! All right. Okay. So, earlier he had said, write in a book what you see, send it to the seven churches, and even names which ones they are. So it's abundantly clear.

Out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And now God, from Genesis chapter 1 on, carried out great acts of power by speaking. That is in the verse that Wayne read just before we did that last song. That is exactly what that psalm said. He spoke, he commanded, and it came into existence. He spoke and it stood fast. Now, so here's our Lord who has this, and here's where you've got to look at what does it mean, not what does it look like.

Out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. That word for sword is not the usual Roman short sword, a machaira, which is about two feet long. This is a ramphaia, which is a five foot long barbarian battle sword. Now, that coming out of somebody's mouth is going to look, if all you're looking for is what does it look like, it's going to look really weird, right? And, matter of fact, that's a poor replacement for a tongue.

But why that picture? Why is that put there? It says that our Lord speaks with great power and impact. That's what it's talking about. And particularly, looking ahead to the Lord's second coming, it speaks of great judgment. That's what's pictured here.

It comes out of the book of Isaiah 49.2. It's also made reference to elsewhere, as we'll see in Revelation. and in the Gospel of John. I guess John wrote both the Gospel of John and Revelation, so that makes sense, right?

You see, all these things, these aren't just me guessing. Matter of fact, don't believe anything I tell you. Okay? This is what God's Word said. God's Word makes it clear what it means. Abundantly clear. Notice I don't typically give just one reference. I'll give multiple references. Lots of support for each one of these things.

Here is a kind of a faint attempt at showing the sword coming out of the mouth in the context. Later on, this same artist has a sword coming out when the Lord comes again. But that's the idea is that he speaks with great power and in this time, judgment, and is able to bring about judgment by what he says. Here's Revelation 19 when the Lord comes again. Twice it says, there from his mouth comes a sharp sword, the sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. It is exactly what he says.

And by the way, that's the last time that that Romphia sort of judgment is mentioned in the book of Revelation. Mentioned five times is the last one. When the Lord comes again for the second time, that's the last time he has that sword coming out of his mouth. Why? Because he's done executing that kind of judgment.

His face was like the sun shining in its strength, would convey a great and incomparable glory. We have references here in Matthew and in Acts. One of the things that we said last week going through the Gospel of John chapter 17 is glory is the radiant essence of who God is. Glory is the radiant essence of who God is.

All of God's character comes together as glory. God is omniscient. He knows everything. That's a part of His glory. God has infinite, as a matter of fact, Ephesians says, a wealth of grace, a wealth of mercy. That is part of His glory. All of God's character, brought together like a full spectrum of light, comes together in the radiant essence of who God is. That's His glory.

Here's John's response. He says, Wow! It's the Lord! Hey man! It gives him a hug, right? No. He's overwhelmed. Certainly at other times he would lean back on the Lord and I'm sure they would have quiet moments. Here he is overwhelmed. You also got to remember, he hasn't seen the Lord for 65 years, earth time. But he's overwhelmed.

Falling as a dead man and feeling overwhelmed is a common response. even of those who were saints, even of those who were believers. And we see that picture again. We have Ezekiel and Daniel. See, this is confirming. You'll notice a lot of these are Old Testament references. This is confirming. Seventy percent of Revelation is straight out of the Old Testament.

He placed his right hand on me. Here's the Lord. You'd imagine after 65 years, now he places his right hand on me. But this is the ascended and seated Lord. who places his right hand on him. To place the hand on one receiving a revelation is certainly to offer comfort and to show reality. This is real. See, you're not just having some strange vision, but let me confirm it with another sense, touching on your shoulder. To do it with the right hand particularly was to show favor and blessing and honor, being the hand as it was of authority.

We have that picture out of Daniel in a couple of passages here. In Mark chapter 10, in our Lord's coming, and I can imagine John saw this very same kind of thing, if not this particular event. He took, our Lord took the children in His arms and blessing them, laying His hands on them, the hand of blessing. The same hand now of the risen, ascended, seated Lord is on John's shoulder. Do not be afraid, which was commonly... It's funny, that's the first thing out of most angel appearances that you read. Don't be afraid. I guess that was an easy thing to do. It was a common opening for these angels. It was said often along with touching to the idea of strengthening there. And he says, I am the first and I am the last.

And you find that in the book of Isaiah here. And I have a chart. I think we've got it available. If not, there's a sign-up sheet out there. And this is one that you can take and study. I won't go into it now. But if you want to take some time to study, get the Bible open, interesting chart.

He says, I am the first and the last. That was Christ's clear claim to deity. Why? Because Isaiah, as we studied previously, chapters 41 through 48, repeatedly that message comes across, spoken from God himself. For Christ to say that, it's a claim to deity. These words also go along with what Christ says elsewhere in the book of Revelation.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet. In our language, we would use a similar figure of speech, A to Z. We mean the first one, the last one, and everything in between. Similar kind of figure of speech here. I am the living one and I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. The literal Greek there has the idea of this. The constantly living one and I was dead and behold, I am continuing to live into the ages. Continuing to live into the ages.

1 Samuel 2.6 and Job 19.25 also have similar references here. What is on your handout here is more like this. This is the prime connection with what we celebrate here today, our Lord's resurrection. Christ wasn't just someone who was a victim of some historical accident, some tragedy that came out of Roman and Jewish political tensions. Christ wasn't just someone who was vaguely, admirably sacrificial.

Oh, wasn't that a nice thing for him to do, I think? No. What Christ did, he did on purpose. He loved us and he gave his life for us. He took our sins upon him on purpose. He was not a victim out there on Golgotha that day when the nails were driven in. He was a volunteer. The only volunteer that could pull it off. take our sins upon Him so that we would have eternal life.

His being raised from the dead wasn't just some sort of an inspirational thing. Oh, isn't that a nice thought? No, far beyond that. It means that Christ lives in us and for us. He is the one doing the living. Behold, I am alive forevermore. Behold, I am your life forevermore.

John 10.28, he starts off that verse by saying about his sheep, I am constantly giving them life. Have you found that truth in your life? He is constantly giving life. He is always faithful to provide that life. I have the keys of death and Hades. Keys of death and Hades, the place of the dead, means He has power. He now has the power over death, which means He is the singular key to eternal life, as we saw in John 17 last week.

Eternal life is not just life that goes on forever. It is knowing God. That's eternal life. It is ageless life. It is life that doesn't depend on life here on planet Earth. and the kind of life that we know this side of heaven's gate. It is life that is forever because He is forever.

He is our life now. He is the one who does the living. That's His intent. He lives as we saw here in His priestly garment and His priestly trumpet-like voice. He lives to carry on ministry with all who believe, us. Paul wrote to the church at Colossae and said, may the word of Christ right now, present, dwell in you richly. He lives to take us to be with him forever, and we will be like him.

He lives for that. He lives even now. John had certainly seen Christ as he was raised. John had certainly seen Christ ascend there from the Mount of Olives. John would see at that very moment Christ, the one who is ascended and seated and ministering in the heavenlies. Christ says, I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. And that impacts us. I was dead and now I'm alive forevermore.

Your life. Christ who is our life. Christ who lives to minister for us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you have revealed in this amazing account that John. We we are astounded and amazed, but also as we look at it, boy, what what amazing depth there is here, because it is not just something uplifting and marginally significant, but he is alive forevermore. He is our life. He lives to minister. Thank you, Lord, for all of what this means, that you have brought our Lord to life to live forevermore, and we with Him. In Jesus' name, Amen.