Today is the last day of regular season games in the NHL. That means the Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us. Of course Oiler fans won’t have anything to cheer about this year. Nor did they have much to cheer about the year before that. 2006 was their last good year in recent memory. That’s when they came within a game of winning the whole thing. Oh, for the glory days of the Oilers when the team won five Stanley Cups from 1983-1990!
Christians around the world today may feel a bit like Oiler fans. As we see the world get more evil we may wish for the “glory days” when Jesus walked this earth performing miracles and driving out demons. Thankfully our text today illustrates how Jesus’ glory days are (still) here. Because of this we don’t have to be afraid of anything.
The Apostle John too must have longed for the glory days of Jesus, especially after he was exiled to the island of Patmos when he was about 80 years old. 60 years had passed since Jesus’ resurrection and all the other original disciples had been martyred for their faith. John’s brother, James, had been the first to go. He was beheaded by Herod Agrippa just ten years after Jesus’ resurrection. Twenty years later the spokesman of the disciples, Peter, was crucified upside down by the emperor Nero. Congregations John had left behind on the mainland of present day Turkey were suffering too. The pastor at the church in Pergamum, Antipas, had reportedly died when attackers threw him in a red-hot bronze ox. Didn’t Jesus care what was happening to his church? Of course Jesus cared. Jesus made that clear to John by appearing to him one Sunday. John reports the encounter like this: “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Revelation 1:12-16).
This vision should have erased all thoughts that Jesus didn’t care what was happening to his church or that he wasn’t able to do anything to help. For starters, Jesus’ face was shining like the sun in all its power, not feebly glowing like a weakening, setting sun as if Jesus was some “has-been.” Jesus was also wearing a white robe with a golden sash – not the bloodied strips of rags he had been crucified in. Nor was he sitting in a deck chair, poolside at heaven’s Hyatt unconcerned what was happening to his churches. He was standing among seven golden lampstands and holding seven stars in his right hand. At the end of the chapter Jesus explains that the lampstands represent the seven churches to whom John was to write and the seven stars were the angels, probably pastors, of those congregations (Revelation 1:20). Do you see what this means? It means that even now Jesus is standing in our midst!
But doesn’t that make you feel a bit uncomfortable? It should. While we can hide our sins from one another we can’t hide them from Jesus. His blazing eyes (Revelation 1:14b) see everything. Jesus knows what websites you check out when no one is looking. He knows how you act when you’re with your friends, even if your parents don’t. He knows that you spoke those kind words this morning to flatter not to encourage. Jesus knew all about John’s sins too. It’s no wonder John fell at Jesus’ feet like a dead man when he saw him.
But Jesus had not appeared to John to frighten him but to encourage him. So he reached out his right hand, touched John’s shoulder, and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17b, 18). If John had stopped to analyze the scene a bit longer, he would have known that Jesus meant him no harm. After all the right hand that reached out to comfort John was the same one that had been holding the seven stars. Jesus wants church leaders to know that he is supporting them in their work with his powerful right hand. Not only that, the lampstands that Jesus was walking among were made out of gold, not plastic. In other words, Christian congregations are precious to Jesus.
If we’re so precious to Jesus, why doesn’t he appear to us the way he appeared to John? That would be a shot in the arm of faith, wouldn’t it? He has appeared to us in such glory. He has done so through the details John carefully recorded for us in our sermon text. If you don’t think that this is as good as actually seeing the vision, note what John reported was coming out of Jesus’ mouth: a two-edged sword. This sword was not a little dagger but a rhomphia. A rhomphia is a broad sword once used by Thracian warriors. It stood almost as tall as a man and was so heavy that it had to be handled with two hands. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses this word to describe the sword that the nine-foot Goliath had. In other words, when you are exposed to God’s Word, look out!
God’s Word is powerful in two ways. It cuts us to pieces with its law making us feel terrible and scared for the sins we have committed, as it plainly says that all those who continue in their sins and ignore the forgiveness Jesus won for them will suffer forever in the fires of hell. But the Word also defends us from despair by assuring us that Jesus has won our forgiveness through his death on the cross and therefore we have nothing to fear, not even death. Jesus made that clear when he said, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17b, 18).
If your parents threatened to punish your misbehavior by locking you in a dark and dirty cellar where rats scurry about, you wouldn’t like the idea. But if you had a key to the cellar, you wouldn’t mind hearing the lock click behind you. No problem. Just get out your key and let yourself out! Although we don’t have the key to get us out of the cellar of death, our friend Jesus does. And he is very much alive and able to use that key for our benefit. In fact he’s promised to do that. Just as Jesus physically rose from the dead we will too will rise some day. And all those who put their trust in Jesus for forgiveness will shine with glory like Jesus does. If we don’t have to be afraid of death, what’s there to fear in life? Nothing! Our glorious Jesus will take care of all our needs. He stands in our midst identifying our needs and filling them. He has the power to do this because John described him as the ruler of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5). It is not the dictators and terrorists that call the shots in this world. It’s our savior Jesus who does that.
There’s been talk about building the Oilers a new arena in downtown Edmonton. I don’t know how you feel about that but I wonder if it won’t turn out to be a disappointment. A glitzy hockey arena would be nice but it won’t turn a poor team into a Stanley Cup contender. Wouldn’t Oiler fans much rather have the owner spend his money on bringing in good talent to win games?
Likewise the vision John received would have been nothing more than a welcome distraction from his life of exile had it not portrayed reality. Jesus is alive. Jesus is all-knowing, he is all-powerful, and is present everywhere, even right here in our midst. We have nothing to be afraid of and every reason to move forward as Christians and as a congregation as we boldly proclaim the resurrected and glorious Lord to a dying world. Amen.
