In Revelation 1 we hear a lot about the glorified Son of God, a little about the aged apostle John, and if we’re listening carefully, a little nugget of perspective that ought to shape how we look at ourselves.
First off, Jesus Christ. The picture provided in Revelation 1 is breathtaking, and unlike any other description of God’s Son in Scripture. He is the faithful witness. The firstborn of the dead. The ruler of kings on earth. He loves his disciples and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” he says, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
He appears on the Lord’s day to John on the island of Patmos with a loud voice like a trumpet. As John turns to see the voice that has spoken, he sees someone like a son of man standing in the midst of seven golden lampstands. The voice’s owner is clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head are white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes are like a flame of fire. His feet are like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. His voice is like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he holds stars, which are the angels of the churches. From his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword. His face is like the sun shining in full strength.
When John sees him, he falls at the feet of this glorious figure as though dead. Can you imagine? And then, to feel a hand gently touch you, and to hear that voice that could shake the mountains tenderly reassure, “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.”
Is it any wonder then that John would describe himself from the beginning of this last book in our Bibles as “his servant” (1:1)? In Revelation 1:9, John briefly describes himself to the reader or hearer of this revelation as, “your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus,” but put most simply, the aged apostle identifies as “the servant” of Jesus Christ. And right there is the little nugget of perspective that ought to continue to shape the way every generation of disciples looks at themselves. We are more than Americans or Canadians or any other nationality. We are so much more than what we do for a living. We are certainly to be more than church service attenders. We have been loved and freed and transformed to be “his servants.” Like John two thousand years before you, that’s the greatest thing you could possibly say about yourself today. More than where you live, what you drive, how you spend your time, or how you stack up in the eyes of society to your fellow human beings, “I am a servant of the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.”
John prefaces everything else he is about to write in this incredible revelation of Jesus Christ with, “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (1:6). Isn’t that the perfect, most appropriate way to look at our lives? Our talents? Our bodies? Our time? Our attitudes? Our opportunities? Our outlook? Our faith? “To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Come what may today, keep this glorious promise in mind…
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him… Even so. Amen. (1:7)