His Perfect Love

Narrator (Male): Once again welcome to His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen. We're in a study of Revelation taking our time through each chapter and verse. In chapter one, the Apostle John gives a brilliant description of Jesus from his eyes on down to his feet. In this description, we learn something important about the judgment to come.

When Jesus returns, it will be to judge a Christ-rejecting world. But will believers be here to witness it all, or worse yet, will we be on the receiving end? Let's lean in and listen to what Pastor Matt has to say.

Matt VanderVen: In Revelation chapter 2, verse 18, he describes himself as well. If you look here, he says one that has a flame of fire. And I should have said also, if you look back, he was clothed with a garment down to his feet in chapter one and gird about the chest with a gold band. His hair was white like wool and white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire.

But I drew your attention to that particular passage that says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like burnished bronze. These descriptions that we're reading about Jesus here this morning are not merely coincidental. They are given by God through this unveiling to help us properly identify this one that we know is the first and the last. This is not a new individual that we're being introduced to here in chapter one of Revelation, nor chapter two, three, and four, and really through the whole book of Revelation.

Rather, it's the eternal King, it's Jesus. And clearly, this description that he gives us: his head, his hair were white like wool and snow. They were very bright and pure white. Again, we know that out of the 404 passages that are in the book of Revelation, some 278 of those passages refer directly to Old Testament scriptures. So more than half of your Bible refers back to the Old Testament, and that is all on purpose, that we would be able to search out the Old Testament scriptures to understand who Jesus is and who he is claiming and declaring to be.

So I would just draw our attention to Daniel chapter 10, verse 5. If you wouldn't mind turning in your Old Testament Bible, Daniel chapter 10, verse 5, you can read it quietly there. But again, these descriptions and records are directly related to the accounts of prophecy in the Hebrew scriptures. It's important because Daniel describes the one as a certain man dressed in linen with a gold belt.

You can see that yourself. Don't trust me. Don't trust any man just because he stands up on a platform, that means nothing. Trust the Word of God, be pointed to the Word of God. Daniel chapter 10, verse 5, you can see it yourself. It's dressed in linen; we just read about that in Revelation in four different passages. And one with a golden belt. We read a golden sash in our New King James translation. It's the same idea. It could be a breastplate, we're not exactly sure of the exact object, nonetheless, it's describing the same person.

His face... look at Daniel chapter 10, verse 6... his face was bright like lightning, his eyes like a flaming torch. His arms and feet gleamed like polished bronze and the sound of his words were like a roaring. The parallels between John's description of Jesus and Daniel's description of this certain man are virtually identical. There's not one of us here this morning that could deny that. This is Jesus and he's identifying himself to you and I very clearly.

And he's identifying himself with the descriptions of the prophet of Daniel that would declare this that those that were Hebrew or even Gentiles that got saved that would read the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures would be able to come back and go, "This is Jesus" and declaring himself clearly as the glorified King, because that's what Daniel is writing about. We call these parenthetical or parallel chapters.

So he was the revealer in Daniel's day, he was the unveiler and revealer in John's day. He's the same Jesus. He's God the Father as the Ancient of Days. Again, he's describing what he sees for reasons. Look at what he says in Daniel 7:9, his hair being light like wool. It creates an interesting connection for us. Again, we've looked at Daniel 7 already in earlier weeks and it records this eschatological vision giving us details of a millennial kingdom. That's our passage in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 6, and the one who will reign in this everlasting kingdom.

In Daniel 7:9, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days, the covenant-keeping God of the Bible, Yahweh. In this description of God, Daniel describes his clothing as white as snow, his hair as white like wool. Now what is he talking about here, this whitening of clothing, this head and hair wool and white in both Daniel 7 and Revelation 1? I believe it may speak to the purity and holiness. God is holy and complete, unstained by any sin.

In the next verse in Daniel, he says one like the Son of Man. You can look at Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. We see that identical language that John uses here. Again, later revealed as Jesus Christ, he approaches the Ancient of Days... we know that is the Father, the Godhead... and he receives from him a never-ending kingdom. Now the description of Jesus's hair in Revelation 1:14 is the same that Daniel uses for God, showing that Jesus has a oneness and a shared identity with God himself because they are one God in three persons.

It's likely that John's original recipient of his letter, Jewish believers and Gentile believers, would have quickly made this connection. Next, if you look in your chapter 1 at verse 14 back in Revelation, he said his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. Now this is interesting here. I just want to draw your attention to this Greek word, flaming, a flaming fire. The Greek word we get here for Jesus's eyes is "ophthalmos".

Ophthalmos is the Greek word. It's plural, it obviously doesn't mean just one eye, it's two eyes. And it's where we get our word from, and forgive me, eye doctors in here and people that do that, ophthalmology. It's where the root word for our word ophthalmology in the English comes from this Greek word ophthalmos that we're reading about here and it describes his eyes as a flaming fire.

The Greek word for flame is "phlox" and the Greek word for fire is "pyr". So ophthalmos phlox pyr would be the flaming fire, or the fire of the eyes if I reversed that. You know in many other languages the words are sort of reversed in how we would say them in English. So it may be here that Jesus is describing sort of these intense searching eyes which seemed as a flame of fire that sort of captivated John's attention and singled out to the apostle the head of the church.

And he examined the seven churches in Asia. Remember he's standing in the midst of these seven lampstands, he's holding them... they're in the midst of him, Jesus in the midst of these seven churches. And these are the things that are standing out to John. The first thing he notices again was his head, the hair like wool, the whiteness of it, his beard probably when he talks about the hair white that way.

He's describing that, wisdom. But then the next thing that John immediately goes to outside of the robe being white and linen, is he goes right to Jesus's eyes. There's something so captivating about Jesus's eyes that they appear to John like a flame of fire. And he's sensing these eyes and he's looking at them and they're drawing John in some way that he is literally fixed on this and he knows that he is the head. John's not questioning this at all and he's getting ready to deliver a very significant message and it's intense.

Have you ever looked at a campfire or maybe a fireplace if you have one in your home? The longer a person looks into a fire, the more flickering the flames have a magnetic, mesmerizing effect on the eyes, the mind, and the senses. Often I love, we have a wood-burning stove, I love to just sit near our wood-burning stove and just look from my couch as I look over and I just watch the flames dance.

When I would be outside, whether it's at a campfire for the school in the academy every year, we have the children back before school starts. And one of the things we do is sort of a cookout for the kids and their parents for the school to bring all the children together for the academy. And as we do that, one of the things that I love is all the parents and everybody gets around. We have times of worship and snacks and s'mores and all those wonderful delicious things that many of us grew up remembering having and enjoying. Well, we sit around there and we watch the flames as they begin to sort of dance.

I don't know if you're anything like me, it's always something that draws me in, it's sort of captivating. I watch it, and next thing you know I'm unaware of just how much time has passed as I'm looking at that flame dancing. It's almost like it's drawing me in. It has an effect on my eyes, mind, and senses. I don't know if it's the same for John, but it reminds me back to my youth, my childhood, being at Camp Stellamaris or camps where I come from in Rochester, New York.

I think of things like that and it draws me back to a particular time in my life that for me it reminds me of time when things were simpler. Times where I didn't have all the technology and all the phones and all the stuff. It was really simple, it's me and God's creation with the flames dancing around me, providing heat, warmth, and making a meal on top of the fire. It just pulls me right in and I'm back there all over again.

I wonder if that's what John experienced when he looks in Jesus's eyes. There's a part of him that's drawn back to that earthly ministry, but there's also something very intense that he cannot take his eyes off of Jesus. I think soon the person starts to get lost in the swirling, turning, and twisting flames that flicker back and forth as the wood crackles and pops. The flames reach outward and disappear out of sight.

The flame seems to have almost its own character, doesn't it? Captivating, drawing people near to watch the dance. It gives warmth. And just as I believe Jesus's eyes are captivating and will draw us further in and we're not going to want to take our eyes off him. Next, we read it says that his feet were like fine brass burned in a furnace. The fact that the feet of Christ appeared to John as if they were white-hot burning metal may point to the glory of the risen Lord.

The feet like fine brass... brass in the Old Testament represented judgment. Remember Jesus is coming again to judge. We'll see that in Revelation chapter six. One of the misunderstandings that even Christians have who are may not be familiar with the book of Revelation, that's why I'm glad we're all here, we're studying God's Word, is that they often think that the judgment that's coming or the evil or the things that are going to take place on this earth, often they give credit to Satan or the Antichrist.

But just a careful reading of Revelation chapter six says it's the wrath of the Lamb. This is the judgment of Jesus Christ for a Christ-rejecting world. This is nothing that the Antichrist or Satan himself is doing. No, these things needs be, the things that we're watching happening today all around us. It was prophesied that in these last days you and I would be here for such a time like this, we would be seeing these things around us.

But it's culminating all to the point in which Jesus Christ will return. We will first be raptured out because Jesus never beats his bride. Jesus never beats his bride. We'll be raptured out and if you want to see that, you can read 1 Thessalonians 5. It's very clear there the church will not be given under wrath. It's the same Greek word as we're going to read in Revelation 6. God is not grammatically challenged. It's not difficult, it really isn't.

But as we look at these things, John notices the very next thing is his eyes go right from Jesus's eyes down to his feet. And it's interesting because as he sees these things, it draws attention. I wonder if his mind's eye were thinking of scriptures like Revelation chapter 14:19 and 20. John had not had that full revelation by the time of chapter one yet as he's writing these things, but you and I have the benefit of that we can look ahead and look at Revelation chapter 14 verse 19 and 20.

He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The great winepress of God's wrath, that's Revelation 14:19 and 20. And then what I read next was he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. That sounds familiar to probably a lot of you. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 25. Matthew Henry notes his feet like fine brass burning in a furnace may denote a firmness of his appointments and an excellence of his proceedings.

Fire again is often associated with judgment in the scriptures: Matthew chapter 5, verse 22; 2 Peter chapter 3, 7. This could also be telling us that his feet like fine brass or fine in a furnace is speaking of someone who has been through the fires of judgment and has come forth with refined purity. Has not Jesus done that? Yes, he has. He was without sin and he became sin for us that we could become the righteousness of God.

Now Jesus has been through the refiner's fire. Now we don't know, is that what he's trying to communicate here? We can't say dogmatically or for certain, but we do know that brass is a metal connected with judgment and sacrifice. Israel, their altar of sacrifice was made of what? Brass. Exodus chapter 27, verses 1 through 6. It's even called the brazen altar. And then we read his voice like the sound of many waters.

That's in verse 15 in Revelation 1 there. You ever wonder what God's voice, Jesus's voice is going to sound like? I was fortunate to grow up near Niagara Falls, Rochester, New York. So spent many years going up to the falls on both the Canadian and American side. Spent a little bit of time playing hockey in Canada, coming back to the States, playing hockey for most of my youth that way.

And so going up and traveling back and forth a lot of times, you could go used to be called the Maid of the Mist, I don't know if they've changed the name of it or not, but you'd go there and they would give you a poncho. And every once in a while, us young people, we didn't necessarily... when I was 10 and 12 and 8, even though I'd been there a number of times... "I don't need a poncho," until they take you almost near the Canadian side and you go under and it's whoosh!

And if you don't bring a change of clothes, you're going to wish you would have worn that poncho. Well, the sound, it's almost impossible to describe like John, the rushing of Niagara Falls, the power behind that water, the sound that you hear, it's panoramic. It's all around you and it's so thunderous... I can't even do it justice, nor could John. But it's the closest thing that he could relate to something he understood in his experience in his life.

He says it was like the sound of many waters. Now John's description of Jesus here, voice akin to this rushing water, parallels the description of God that we just looked at in Daniel chapter seven in the Old Testament, again serving to emphasize the deity of the Son of God. In Ezekiel... please turn to Ezekiel chapter 43, verse 2. In Ezekiel chapter 43, verse 2, the prophet declares, "I saw the glory of God in Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters and the land was radiant with his glory."

So again, this image of rushing water conveys a sense of force, resonance, an undeniable demand of significance. When you're at Niagara Falls, you're not like, "Yeah, I've seen bigger." That's not something that's coming right out of your mouth. You're like, "Whoa, this is spectacular." It can be deafening. Again, think of a large waterfall roaring into the ocean or it hits rocky shorelines. God's voice carries an inherent authority that commands our unwavering attention. Since Jesus is God, his voice also carries authority.

For our time just here this morning, I'm going to stop here because we're going to read next, if the Lord should tarry next week, in his right hand seven stars, his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword, and his face was very bright like the sun. I have a video to talk about not only this double-edged sword that we're going to read about, romphaia, but I don't want to rush our time.

As I said to you when we started the book of Revelation, we're going to take our time. We're going to get all the meat off the bone. We're going to let Jesus naturally through the Spirit of God unveil more and more to us and we're not going to just rush through it to get through it. So please bear with me as we take our time. We're going to stop there. We had a beautiful morning, a very exciting morning.

I know you and I are going, "But we're just getting started. I want to keep going through this passage of Revelation." And so do I. I just thank you all that this morning as we got to look at the Vacation Bible Schools, we got to look at the Word of God. I hope you're as excited as I am about what God is doing. And just remember the last thing I left those children and the volunteers in Vacation Bible School was a reminder that Jesus has reminded us of.

The best is yet to come. Amen? The best is yet to come. Father, as you've just overheard, and led by your Spirit, we just want to be faithful in all the things that you will pour out before us. Lord, I can't help but thinking, asking even right now in our hearts, you can save through any passage of scripture. If there's anybody here this morning that just read one of these verses and began to think about things eternal and they don't know where they stand in regards to their relationship with you.

They don't know that if they've asked you to be their Lord and Savior, to be born again. Lord God, I pray that this morning, if there's anybody here their hearts have been touched by you and they want to be saved... and Lord, it's not your desire that any man should perish, you've said it, but that all, all of us. Father, I just pray that if there's anybody here, they wouldn't walk out of here without whether a prayer with you privately or even right now, Lord, they would just ask you to come into their hearts. They would believe on your name. They would believe in your death, your resurrection, your ascension, and they would believe that you are reigning and that you're on the throne.