PORTRAIT OF JESUS
Rev. 1:12-18
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. I heard about a city dwelling man & wife who decided to take a trip out into the country. They put up at night into a hotel room.
2. Early the next morning, the husband threw open the windows and took a deep breath. As his eyes focused on the sky, his face twisted up and he ejected all the air from his lungs & slammed the window shut.
3. His wife asked what was wrong with the sky. He replied, “I don’t trust anything I can’t see!”
4. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT SEEN.” Faith is the basis of the Christian life. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. But there is an inner knowing, by God’s Spirit.
B. WHAT DID JESUS LOOK LIKE?
1. Tonight we’re talking about someone we love, because He first loved us. He loved us when we were enemies and vile sinners, wicked in our hearts – and truth be known, we still are, except for His covering grace and empowering Spirit.
2. I want to take out my paint brush and try to sketch a poor portrait of the One I love. When someone has saved you from death & Hell, you don’t forget it; it forever impresses you with His selfless sacrifice and immense humility. Who is more deserving of praise than Jesus?
3. I have read several supposed descriptions of Jesus, none of them really credible. The shroud of Turin actually paints the best likeness of what He looked like. But a physical description doesn’t matter, for His physical body died and was transformed by resurrection.
4. Paul, who actually saw the resurrected Jesus, says in 2 Cor. 5:16, “Therefore from now on we recognize no one by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”
[TEXT: JOHN’S REVELATION VISION] Rev. 1:12-18
“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw 7 golden lampstands, 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. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
5. But the Bible has many prophetic descriptions of Jesus. One of my favorites is verse 3 of the hymn, “Jesus Use Me,” by Jack & Billy Campbell.
6. It says, “He’s the Lily of the Valley, the bright and Morning Star, He’s the fairest of ten-thousand to my soul; He’s the beautiful Rose of Sharon, He’s all the world to me, and best of all He is my coming King!”
C. THESIS
1. Paul says in Rom. 3:19 that at the Judgment, “that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be held accountable to God.” What could perform such a feat?
2. Because the One on the throne bears on His body the stains of humanity – the tears, sweat, and marks that demonstrate that He is worthy to judge “because He is the Son of Man” (Jn. 5:27).
3. “To you which believe, He is Precious,” 1 Pet. 2:7. There is so much beauty wrapped up in the Person of Jesus that every part of the Lord brings forth memories. We’re going to remember the special things about our Jesus.
I. WHAT DO WE SEE IN JESUS?
A. HIS FEET
1. Luke 7:38, tells about a woman who was a sinner, at Simon the Pharisees’ house, who “began to wash His feet with her tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment.”
2. Those feet walked many dusty miles through Judea and Galilee. They must have developed calluses and were well worn.
3. Isaiah said of them, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (52:7).
4. Then we hear the sad tale of how those beautiful feet were marred by cruel nails, (Ps. 22:16), “they pierced my hands and my feet.”
B. HIS GARMENTS
1. John in Rev. 1:13 saw Him dressed in a Kingly “robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.” But that is not how Jesus came into this world.
2. His first cloths were “swaddling cloths,” probably of poor quality (because His parents were poor), and he was laid in a cattle feeding trough, for a bed.
3. Later, when He ministered, He wore a robe with the characteristic blue fringe of a devout Jew. It was this fringe that the woman with the issue of blood touched and was healed of her infirmity.
4. Herod clothed Jesus with the mocking red robe of royalty. At last, His clothes were stripped from Him and the soldiers “cast lots for His vesture” Mt. 27:35.
C. HIS HANDS – full of power
1. HE WORKED for a living as a carpenter 30 years
2. HEALED THE SICK. Many times Jesus...
a. Touched the Lepers, Mt. 8:3; Mk. 1:41;
b. Healed the fevered brows, Mt. 8:14
c. Healed the blind, Mt. 9:29; 20:34; Mk. 8:25
d. Opened the ears of the deaf, Mk. 7:32
e. Healed the bent woman, Lk. 13:13
f. Raised the dead, Mk. 5:41, Jairus’ daughter
g. And healed many others, Mk. 6:5; Lk. 4:40
3. His hands HELD THE CHILDREN, Mk. 10:16; And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
4. FED THE HUNGRY, Lk. 9:16
5. At last, TORN BY CRUEL SPIKES; the “nail prints” could be clearly seen in His hands, Jn. 20:25.
D. HIS EYES, later seen as flames of fire, by John.
1. Of COMPASSION for the lost multitudes, Mt. 9:36 “When He saw the multitudes, He was moved to compassion.”
2. Saw the WIDOW’S GRIEF at Nain and gave her son back to her alive, Lk. 7:13. He also saw the Widow giving her 2 pennies in offering, Mt. 12:41.
3. His eyes WEPT, over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41), at Lazarus’ grave (Jn. 10), & Gethsemane (Heb. 5:7).
4. He LOOKED UPON HIS MOTHER THE LAST TIME, Jn. 19:26, “When Jesus therefore saw His mother....” He was dying & knew how bad it hurt her!
E. HIS MOUTH/WORDS
1. BLESSED THE CHILDREN, Mk. 10:16
2. FRAMED A SMILE. Lk. 10:21, “Jesus rejoiced”
3. SPOKE WORDS OF HEALING & COMFORT
4. PREACHED THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION
5. And SANG SONG OF PRAISE, MT 26:30
6. CRIED AT THE CROSS, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit” Lk. 23:46, and “It is finished!” Jn. 19:30.
F. HIS HEART
1. OF LOVE – bigger than the universe
2. Through which the DIVINE BLOOD FLOWED, which takes away the sins of the world.
3. It was BROKEN, because of His love;
4. PIERCED the thrust of a ROMAN SPEAR.
II. WHEN JESUS SEES YOU, WHAT WILL HE REMEMBER?
A. WILL WE HAVE FULFILLED HIS WILL?
1. Jesus will speak the gathered Humanity, and separate us all into two groups: sheep & goats; those who were obedient & those who served themselves.
2. Which group will you be in? Mt. 25:31-46.
B. JESUS GAVE US INSTRUCTIONS:
1. OUR FEET, “Go ye into all the world and preach this gospel to every creature,” Mk. 16:15.
2. OUR GARMENTS, “And keep yourselves unspotted by the world,” James 1:27.
3. OUR HANDS, “Believers shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover,” Mk. 16:18.
4. OUR EYES, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” Jn. 4:35.
5. OUR WORDS, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” Eph. 4:29.
6. OUR HEARTS, we’re supposed to KEEP OUR HEARTS on the love of God.
CONCLUSION
A. LET’S DEDICATE EACH MEMBER OF OUR BODIES TO BE USED BY GOD
B. THE CALL
1. PRAYER
2. LORD’S SUPPER
