Rev.1:12-16 – I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and wrapped around the chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been heated to a glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
I guess you would have to say of all the people that have ever lived, no one knew Jesus the man any better than John. After all, John said it himself, “the one that Jesus loved”. There was a personal friendship between Jesus and John unrivaled by anyone else in the scripture. In today’s passage John is all alone on an island in the Aegean Sea not far from the church he pastored in Asia, the church of Ephesus. John was in prayer that Sunday, he said he was in the Spirit, when he heard a voice behind him that sounded like a trumpet. When John turned to look he was struck with holy fear, standing in front of him was his old friend, Jesus of Nazareth.
He was startled enough to hear any voice that day, but to hear the familiar voice of Jesus which was the same yet very different, it was musical like the sound of a trumpet yet at the same time it sounded like the waves of the Aegean Sea. John saw Jesus in His two natures, he saw Him as a man and at the same time he saw the glory of the Son of God. Here is how Adam Clarke described this moment.
“John also saw a person in the midst of the lampstands. His identity is no secret: it is the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus. Both His title and His location are significant…. This is Jesus’ favorite self-designation….It identifies Him as the heavenly Messiah who is also human and who will receive an eternal kingdom. His location is among the lampstands. He is there with them. He knows what they are going through. He is watching and He is working in His churches. Though they may fail Him, He will not fail them. To sense His presence would encourage and sustain them. He is right there in the middle of all they experience. And what a One it is who is with them!”
Adam Clarke brought out one of the blessings of knowing Christ as a man, Jesus can totally relate to us in whatever we are facing. At the same time He is the Son of God, as a man He has compassion on us and as God He has the power to minister to us no matter what we are facing. This was the beginning of John’s revelation of Jesus, the rest of the book of Revelation flows out of this encounter and literally takes our breath away.
