Rev.1:16 – His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
While John was in the Spirit, possibly praying for his church in Ephesus, the Lord Jesus appeared to John, clothed in His glory. His eyes were like flames of fire, His hair was white as wool, and His face was shining like the noonday sun. The glory of God shining out from the face of Jesus actually makes the natural sun dim in comparison. It’s like being outside early in the morning while its still dark waiting for the sun to rise. The sky is filled with beautiful stars that are shining brightly until they suddenly disappear when the sun comes up. The stars can’t compare to the brightness of the sun, in the same way the sun itself will fade into obscurity when the kingdom comes. How do I know? John tells us in Revelation 21:23,24 – “And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it”. This is the brilliant bright glory that John saw on Patmos that day. Here is how Albert Barnes describes this scene.
“In his full splendor when unobscured by clouds; where his rays are in no way intercepted.…There could be no more striking description of the majesty and glory of the countenance than to compare it with the overpowering splendor of the sun.—This closes the description of the personage that appeared to John. The design was evidently to impress him with a sense of his majesty and glory, and to prepare the way for the authoritative nature of the communications which he was to make.”
This brilliant light shining from the face of the Lord is filled with revelation and life. This light opens our blind eyes so that we can see the glory of God. For John, his eyes were wide open as he was caught up into heaven and saw the Lion and the Lamb, Christ Himself enthroned in glory. John was filled with revelation light to declare Christ to us and to unfold the prophetic mysteries that we are living in today. The light of Christ is shining into us and out of us today to penetrate the darkness of this world.
