Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript
## Revelation 1:9-20

Brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamus and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea.

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed at the garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with the golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace.

And his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars. And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, “Fear not. I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forever more. Amen.

And have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter, the mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks, which thou sawest are the seven churches. Let us pray for God to illuminate this text for understanding through the song provided.

This sermon scripture to say, “Be anxious in nothing. Everything with prayer and supplication. Let your requests be made known to God.” So, I do pray that this sermon doesn’t prove too confusing or I get a little long. Now, children, I’m going to ask for your special help today. Three pages of outlines. Parents are going to have to try to maintain good attention to get this material. And you can understand a lot of it, too.

There’s a lot of Bible stories wrapped into this sermon today and wrapped into this picture of our Savior. We just read in verses 14-16 a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is a revelation, not supposed to be tough. Supposed to be a revealing of Jesus Christ. And if we pay attention today, we’ll see our savior revealed in some amazing ways. And we’ll see ourselves revealed as well.

We will see in this mirror of the scriptures what God says we are, what our purpose in life is, and how we’re supposed to think of ourselves as we stream out of this temple today. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is also a revealing to us. These sevenfold attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ are portrayed and pictured rather described and outlined before you. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to look briefly at the sevenfold picture of the savior here, the seven attributes of Christ and what he looked like.

And then we’re going to look at what those things mean in terms of three things. We’re going to talk about Jesus as the great warrior, Nazarite bridegroom, Nazarite, dedicated warrior. We’re going to talk about Jesus as a mighty warrior who was also a bridegroom as strong as the sun, stronger than the sun. And then after that, we’re going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ as the eschatological man, the endpoint of man.

He’s the alpha and the omega. He’s the omega to which man moves toward and he becomes that and is portrayed that way in these verses from Revelation chapter 1. He’s eschatological man. He’s the end point. He’s what we’re all becoming as well in terms of his revealing of these particular attributes. So, we’re going to talk first about him being a Nazarite warrior. Then, we’re going to talk about him being the endpoint of man, a metal shiny golden man instead of the dust that Adam was.

And then the third thing we’re going to talk about is Jesus Christ as the provider to the earth of fire and water. It’s why I wore this nice tie that was gifted to me this last year. Fire and water. This is the third element of the Lord Jesus Christ pictured for us in these attributes in Revelation 1. And these things, well, we’re supposed to be mighty warriors. We’re supposed to have the same endpoint to our lives as Jesus portrays here.

It tells us who we are. And it tells us as well that we’re supposed as we stream out of here today, be water and fire into this earth, changing it and making a new reality where we go it’s who we are. So let’s look at these individual elements first and actually let’s first remind ourselves that this is an exemplar to us. What does that mean? Big word. I had to look up the dictionary last night myself. Make sure I was using it right.

Okay. An exemplar is a standard by which other things attain to that particular standard. With an artist, he’ll have a vision, an ideal, an exemplar that he moves toward in this creation of work. So Jesus is the great example or the exemplar, the standard for us and we glorify we praise him for this manifestation of who he is today. One of the things we go away with is as John did, we fall down and say, “Wow, Jesus Christ, this is who you are. How can we stand in your presence?” And he raises us back up like he raised John back up. We’ll see that this vision is a lot like Daniel chapter 10. There’s a relationship between Daniel 10 in here. Remember in Daniel 10, that’s where a man appears to Daniel. I’m sure it was the Savior. And Daniel falls down. He has no strength left. And that man says to him, “Dearly beloved.” Says it twice. Calls Daniel beloved.

And this is John, the beloved of the Savior. You see the connection between the vision in Daniel and the vision here in Revelation of our Savior. And we want to worship Jesus because of this. But we also want to see that this is who we are as Christians who have Christ’s name upon us. This is who we are. Young men and young women, I want you to see this. I want you to get this into your being so that your lives are changed and you know when you walk out of here who you are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I know that it’s he’s an exemplar to us. It’s not just something apart from us because these attributes at least most of them are then spoken of and we get to the seven letters to the seven churches in the next couple of chapters of Revelation and the beginning of each of those seven letters, he says who he is and he quotes from this description. You see, and what that and then he tells the church, “This is who I am.” And by way of saying that, this is what you need to do the task I’m calling you to do.

You know, I have the sharp two-edged sword. You better exercise judgment and discernment in your church because I have the sharp two-edged sword. And if you don’t do it, I’ll come and I’ll take out your light. So, he tells us to exercise the sword. You see what I’m saying? So, all these attributes are things that he pushes into us that he transforms us into by way of worship primarily and then by applying what we learn in worship into our lives.

So it’s an exemplary. We’ll see that we’ll see that these attributes are listed in Revelation 2 and 3. Now in the outline real brief literary comment here. How is this structured? The outline is chiastic. It’s got that central point leading up things leading out. And there’s another way to look at it at the beginning of your outline you see that it’s really can be seen as well in a series of pairs. Both of the first pair are recorded in the first attribute is head and hair are like wool and snow.

And that’s a pair, isn’t it? Head and hair, wool and snow. And attributes three and four kind of go together too as a couple. Eyes like fire, feet like heated bronze. Those are both fiery images. Fire and then the bronze glowing as if it’s in fire. And then the next two attributes go together as well as voices like waters. Actually, they don’t. The next two. The next four go back and forth. Voice like waters, hand like hand with stars, mouth less sword, face like sun.

So voice like waters, mouth with sword, voice, mouth. See the connection there in that pair. And then six and eight in terms of that arrangement. Head hand with stars, face like sun. The stars and the sun are wrapped together in that imagery. And see, it’s important to see the way God writes this stuff because it helps us to understand it. We’ll see that in a little bit. But if we didn’t we didn’t put these things together this way it wouldn’t be quite as clear.

This is remember we said that Revelation particularly a lot of the scriptures are but Revelation particularly it’s like a if you’re into computers it’s like an archive file. It’s densely packed and you extract out from it all kinds of stuff which is what our task is to do today and we better get on with it or we’re not going to get finished. Okay, so let’s go through these seven attributes. First of all, the scriptures tell us in Revelation 1:14 that his head and his hairs were white like wool as white as snow.

Well, what’s that talking about? One of the things that we’ve got to see the connection to here is Daniel chapter 7. Remember we said in Daniel chapter 7, very important text because it’s quoted Daniel chapter 7 is earlier in this book of Revelation where it talks about Jesus going in the clouds to the father. So, we’ve already talked about Daniel chapter 7, but I’ll just read verse 9.

Daniel 7: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.”

Now, we’re going to return to Daniel 7:9 and 10 at the end of the sermon. But for now, understand that when we read that Jesus’s head and hair are white as wool and snow, understand it’s a picture of the ancient of days in Daniel 7 that’s being referred to. He’s an elder. You know, I’m getting gray and many of the men in our church are becoming gray or white on top.

And that’s what Jesus is. He is the elder of all elders as it were. He has attained to the father’s maturity in his humanity. Okay? Not in his deity, but in his humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ has mature holiness now as represented by this attribute that correlates with the ancient of days, the father in Daniel 7 sitting on the throne. Okay. So, First of all, Jesus is elderly and elders are to rule in the church.

Jesus rules among the pastors and Jesus is truly elder. He’s white. He’s got white hair on top. Okay. Secondly though, this is as we said, it can be seen as mature holiness. In Isaiah 1, both of these references to wool and snow and whiteness is given.

“Come now, let us reason together, sayeth the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

Okay. So, it’s holiness. It’s mature. Holiness is the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in this particular attribute. But there’s another reference in of this holiness and this whiteness. And that’s in Lamentations 4:7.

“Her Nazarites were purer than snow.”

Remember the Nazarite, that’s the warriors of God. They would take a vow. They’d let their hair grow long. They wouldn’t eat grapes or drink wine. And they would go to holy war against God’s enemies for particular tasks. So her Nazarites, her strong, committed, consecrated warriors were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was of sapphire. Lord Jesus here right at the get-go in this first attribute certainly describes himself as elderly, mature holiness, but he describes himself as the ultimate Nazarite as well.

Pure white, whiter than white. That’s the Lord Jesus Christ and his countenance, his head and his hair, his eyes.

**Number two, his eyes are as a flame of fire.** Those eyes can pierce through you. They cut right through. Nothing is hid from the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to be hid, don’t we? Sometimes, kids, boys and girls, parents, we don’t want God seeing us all the time. But those laser beam, X-ray eyes, fire eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ see everything you do.

And they don’t just see what you do. They perceive and discern your thoughts and your intentions. They see right through to you. Scary thought at first, but on the other hand, if you’re a church that’s in persecution, as this church was, you need to know that Jesus sees everything. And those eyes are flames. And they see that wicked Jewish church that’s persecuting you. And they see that wicked Nero, and they’re going to burn him up.

So, these eyes are omniscient. They know everything. But these eyes are also omnipotent. They have the power of God for the delivery of his people. We confess our sins and God strikes out at the enemies of his church because we’re his people. Those eyes are as a flame of fire.

Now, I mentioned Daniel chapter 10. We’re referring to it many times today. But in Daniel chapter 10, Jesus is pictured and we read that uh we read in Daniel chapter 10. You ought to Maybe keep a finger in Daniel chapter 10 in your Bible if you would because it is relevant here to this discussion. In Daniel chapter 10, there was a man clothed in linen whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz. Remember we said that talked about this last week. In Daniel, Jesus is still at work. He’s girded around the waist because he’s still working with gold fine gold. And in Revelation 1, remember he’s girded about the breast, the paps.

His chest area with gold like the high priest. But now the girding is not around his waist, it’s up around his chest because he’s at rest now. His work is done in heaven. He’s come to completion of his work. In any event, Daniel 10 goes on to say that his body was like the barrel and his face is the appearance of lightning. That’s going to be matched in our description in Revelation 1. His countenance is like the sun and his eyes as lamps of fire.

In Daniel chapter 10, Jesus His eyes are as lamps of fire. But in Revelation 1, his eyes are a flame of fire. Intensification of image. That happens throughout Revelation 1. As Jesus moves from his work to his finished state in his in his humanity, he becomes mature and glorified in his image. Okay? So there’s an intensification of image. And his eyes are not like a lamp now. It’s like the flame of fire itself.

His eyes are a flame of fire. Now he has seven eyes. In the image later on in Revelation 5, it tells us that he has seven eyes and those eyes are like flames of fire. Those eyes are the seven spirits of God sent into all the world. Now hopefully if you were here last week, you’ll remember that’s what we are, right? We’re the lampstands. We’re the watcher almond trees. That’s what the lampstand was in the temple.

We’ve got seven there’s a sevenfold picture of the church and the lampstand. And there are seven lampstands here. The Lord Jesus Christ has seven eyes in Revelation 5. Those eyes are that same spirit that goes throughout the whole world. So Jesus’s eyes, the flame of fire, go everywhere in terms of his sight, omniscient and omnipotent. And we’ll see more about that in a little bit. Okay.

**Third, his feet are like undefined brass as if they burned in a fire.** Now, in Daniel chapter 10, his feet are like polished brass, but here they’re like glowing brass as it burned in a fire. Now, We’ll talk a little bit in a little bit later more about temple imagery. But we talked about it last week a little bit. Remember Holy of Holies, that’s the Holy of Holies. That’s the whiteness. That’s the purity at the head of the temple, so to speak, of the tabernacle. In the holy place on Jesus’s right hand, he’s got that sevenfold candelabra there.

That almond watcher tree on the left of the 12 table, the 12 loaves of showbread. And then as you come out from that at the outside of the holy place is the altar. And That altar is brass or bronze. Okay, that altar was made in Exodus, the tabernacle altars. You would stick stuff inside of it. That’s where the fire was is inside the altar. So, the picture is this bronze altar glowing, burning brightly in the context of fire.

Now, I’ve got a thing on your outline here. Then, it’s a superheated altar. And this links up with the last attribute because it is the fire of Christ that ignites the sacrifice on the altar. Now, what am I talking about there? Well, in Exodus 9:24, okay, Exodus 9, talking about setting up the altar, putting the stuff on there. How do you get fire on the altar? You Now, right after verse 24 in Exodus 9 is Exodus 10, and you got two guys named Nadab and Abihu.

And they offer strange fire to God. They tried to use matches to start the fire. That’s what I think is kind of maybe not matches. They brought fire of their own because in verse 24 just before the Nadab and Abihu story, most of us don’t know this, but it says in verse 24, there came a fire out from before the Lord. That means the ark, the cherubim, fire comes out of there after the sacrifices placed on the altar for the first time and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat which when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on the faces.

And then later in Exodus says, “You’re never supposed to let that fire go out.” That’s that perpetual flame and it’s heavenly fire from earth. Jesus’s lamp, his eyes, his flaming fire set that altar ablaze. Okay? Now, that’s what happened. Old testament that really happened. First bronze altar was lit by altar fire from the cherubim, the ark of the covenant. Because the picture is it’s God’s work cleansing, purifying his people, in burning up the unholy ones. You see? Okay. So Jesus’s legs, his feet are like unto fiery fine brass glowing in a fire.

**Four, his voice is as the sound of many waters.** And in other places in Daniel and in Revelation, it says that his voice was like multitudes. His voice was like mighty thunderings. Revelation tells us. So the sound of many waters, not just one water, but a whole bunch of waters. And as I said, Revelation and Daniel both talk about a multitude. And we’ll see that part of that imagery is us.

We’re the many waters that come out of Christ’s mouths. But the water comes out to purify the earth the same way the fire comes out to purify the sacrifice. But the tie, we’ll talk about a little more later, but fire and water are the two big elements here in the depiction of who Jesus Christ is. And they are purifying and cleansing. Both of them are. And water reminds us of the creation of the world, how things come out of water and that water is a picture of the recreation of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So he’s got water coming and that’s central and this chiastic structure this middle point is the central point as we said all along over and over and over we’ve got visual imagery here but the word is what’s important the word interprets the imagery you didn’t know at first why I had the tie until I told you I had this tie on for this reason. So Jesus’s voice is central. His appearance may change. His words do not change.

His word is perpetual. Okay.

**Fifth, he has in his right hand seven stars.** We talked about this last week. These seven stars are the lamps that sat upon the lamp holder. The church is the lamp holder. And the lamp is particularly the pastors. Okay? the pastors are those watchers who are watching over the churches in the context of the almond trees, the watcher trees. They are overseers, right? That’s what bishops are, overseers.

They are supervisors. They look over the church and the individual members of the church look over things as well. And Jesus is looking over those people. Now, he’s got us in his right hand. And I want to quote from the Lutheran commentator Lenski here on this talking specifically of pastors. The right hand symbolizes majestic authority. The Lord’s will, purpose, intent, and the power back of them. He is their authority.

His purpose they serve. His will they execute. His word they speak, his power is back of all that they thus rightly do in his name. Speaking of pastors now, being in the right hand of the Savior, the stars are far above the earth. They move majestically in their courses. The movements and agitations on earth do not affect them. Their light and the place they hold are ever the same. It is light reflected from the sun, the galaxy of heaven moving in heavenly harmony.

Here is a vision of the office of the holy ministry which every church and every pastor should absorb. Stars, not human gas lights or will of the wisps. Stars, not doormats on which men wipe their feet. Unchanging stars, not men who are always out of breath catching up with the changing times on earth. may God give his church throughout the world pastors who represent what Lenski is here spoken of in terms of being these heavenly stars.

But it’s not just pastors. They represent all Christians. I know that because the book of Daniel tells me in chapter 12 that they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. That’s you. They that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Elder Meyhar told us Friday night reminded the kids Philippians 2, we shine as lights. We’re stars in the midst of a darkened world. Abraham said that you’ll have a seed, the great star, the son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but you’ll have many seeds as well.

As the stars in the heaven. That’s who we are. We look at those Psalm 8. What is man? Man is more glorious than those stars. That’s the honor that Christians have. We all are to shine bright for the Lord Jesus Christ. Taking that light out of his eyes into our eyes and going into the world. He holds us in his right hand.

**Six out of his mouth with a sharp two-edged sword.** This sword is not a little dagger. This is one of them big claymores. This is one of them big five foot jobs here that took a shoulder sling in order to carry around and wield as you cut people’s heads off. This is one of them big swords that the Septuagint tells us David used on Goliath’s head, Lord Jesus Christ. Huge sword. Ephesians 6 says we got small swords, the word of God, but we have swords nonetheless. The sword is the word of God. Yeah. And Hebrews 4 says that it’s effectual for cutting apart bone and marrow.

Hebrews, an interesting phrase. Isn’t it? Word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. By the way, that edge really literally is mouth. This huge claymore that Christ uses, it comes out of his mouth in Revelation 19. It’s a double-bladed two mouths. It devours things. You either are devoured for good or devoured for bad by the Lord Jesus Christ. But either way, you’re going to be devoured by him.

Okay? In Ephesians, Hebrews, I read from Ephesians. I really wanted to go to Hebrews. Let’s turn to Well, it’s okay. We’ll just read Hebrews 4 first.

“The word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder, of soul and spirit, and of joint and marrow, and it is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

What’s he talking about? The sword the priest would use to cut the animal sacrifice apart. That’s what he’s talking about. This sword will cut apart the sacrifice, and you’re going to be sacrificed to the Lord Jesus Christ. When he converted you, that’s what happened. He cut you apart and he still discerns your thoughts and intentions through his word. The discerner, see those bright eyes really are referred to here in Hebrews as well.

“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, those flaming eyes. But all things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do, seeing that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens.”

That’s what this picture in Revelation 1 partly it is, is this great high priest passed into the heavens. Let us hold fast our profession. What’s the What’s the theme of Revelation?

Persevere. You got a great high priest. He sees it all. His sword cuts people apart. Cut you apart. Make you a sacrifice to him in glory or it will devour you. Okay. So, this sword, the scriptures tell us in Ephesians 6, of course, this is the sword of the spirit, the word of God that comes out. Turn to Psalm 149. This is important, I think.

“Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praises unto him at the timber and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. And then let them sing a lot upon their beds.”

We’ve done most of this today, haven’t we? We’ve come forward and sang praises to our God. Praise God, right? From whom all blessings flow. Glory be to the father, to the son, and the holy ghost around the Lord and glory seated. That’s us too singing with the cherubin. We’ve done these things. And then upon our beds and then

“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with feathers of iron. To execute upon them the judge and written this honor. Have all his saints praise ye the Lord.”

Now that should call to mind. Psalm 2. Yes. Kings bound with feathers. They want to break off the shackles. Psalm 1, Psalm 150, Psalm 2, Psalm 149. The same chiastic structure can be found in the Psalms. But in any event, the important part here is to see is that we go from the worship of God in Psalm 149 to you and I, not just Jesus having the two-edged sword, you and I having a sharp two-edged sword to execute re upon the kings of the earth.

Now, that doesn’t mean that when we leave today at the edge of the parking lot, we’re going to be handing out claymores to you. What it means is you have that word. And when you leave the worship of God with your mind and your tongue made new through his worship and you go out and discern and see and evaluate based on the word of God, you are binding kings and rulers. You change the world when you leave this place.

This honor have all his saints. It’s not just the pastors. It’s not the elders. It’s not the deacons. It’s not the smart ones. It’s everybody. It’s not just mom and dad. It’s boys and girls. Jesus is pleased to have little babies, little children sing forth his praise and to speak to him with their prayers and their words to their friends and change reality as a result of it. Jesus is pleased with that. Jesus is the one who has the sharp two-edged sword come out of his mouth.

Revelation 19. We’re all familiar with that, but we may forget that when Jesus rides forth with us in his train, where does he come from? Do you remember that? Where does Jesus come from? As he’s riding forth, he comes out of heaven. I saw heaven opened and the rider comes forth. Where are we when we worship God? We’re in heaven. Sterns from corner. We’re going to the heavenly perspective. What’s revelation about?

John ascends up throne room of God sees worship. And out of that worship, Jesus leads us forth into the world, wielding our swords, changing the world through the preaching of our of his word and our tongues. You see, that’s who we are. That’s who we are.

**Seventh, his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.** What a beautiful picture. As the sun shines in his strength. What’s that about? Well, hopefully you know your Bibles well enough to know at least a few things here.

Psalm 19, right? The sun comes up and runs in circuit like a strong man and it’s like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. Who’s that? Samson. Yeah. Samson means like the sun. That’s what the word means in Hebrew. He’s the sun. He’s the great Nazarite warrior that comes up from God who’s going to shine bright. That quote we read from Judges earlier about God’s people shining bright is really talking about the Nazarite warriors particularly.

And later on in Judges, that great Nazarite warrior is Samson who is like that strength of the sun and stronger than the sun. He a great strong man. And he comes out as the Nazarite. His countenance was shining as the sun and his strength. And Samson marries the world as it were, makes an offer of marriage to the gentile world. That’s what Jesus came to effect. He’s the greater Samson. He’s that great powerful warrior.

What’s talked about here is his strength is linked up with his head and his hair and his face. The suns and the stars. The sun and the stars. It’s the strength of God. Lord Jesus Christ is that great Nazarite warrior. Okay, those are the seven pictures. And let’s now think about what we’re going to now is apply those pictures to three basic images that we can take out of these sevenfold attributes. And the first is this Nazarite warrior.

We began and ended with that, didn’t we? Revelation. The first attribute, the purity in Lamentations 4:7 says that when God’s people are doing good, their Nazarites are pure like milk or white. And we ended with it as well, the sun shining in his strength. The picture Samson Psalm 19 and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let’s talk then about Jesus Christ and you as a strong Nazarite warrior. Okay. Christ is the supreme Nazarite bridegroom.

In when we read in that first attribute that his head and his hair were white like wool and white as snow. Okay, that should bring to mind Numbers chapter 6 where the vows of the Nazarites and who the Nazarites are portrayed for us. And we think of the Nazarites as the hair being dedicated. Remember Paul, we think that in Acts, Paul goes forth in those missionary journeys as a Nazarite and he comes back to Jerusalem to offer up his hair and do the sacrifices required in the temple of a Nazarite.

I believe that’s what he did at least once or twice, maybe all three times. But in Numbers 6, what’s talked about is the dedicated head of the Nazarite. The hair represents your head. You see, you put your head on the altar for God. And you are either going to crush heads or you’re going to have your head crushed. When Deborah sang about the Nazarites being strong like the sun and all this stuff, she was singing the praises of Jael, a woman who had just crushed Sisera’s head.

Remember song of Deborah? What’s going on? Sisera and his these bad dudes with him. They’re going to invade and, you know, do bad things to God’s people. And Deborah convinces Barak or she goes with him to go out and fight his and they go forth to do battle. And it says that their hair hung long. They had long hair when they prepared to do battle with Sisera. They were Nazarites for that holy war against God’s enemies.

And what happens? Jael, a woman takes a Sisera is on the run from God’s warriors and Jael gives him milk. She lets him lay down. He goes to sleep. She takes a tent peg out and pounds it into his skull, crushes his head. See, you know, Proverbs 31 says the women aren’t supposed to be meek, quiet little submissive. folks. I mean, they are supposed to be submissive, but don’t think that means weak because in Proverbs 31, the first thing it says is a mighty woman, a woman of valor, kind of like a Nazarite woman.

Who can find such a good bride? Jesus can. Jesus came to claim the church and to make us into Jaels for him. The church is a woman. Church is a bride. By the end of Revelation, she looks just like the bride or the groom, rather. So, we’re supposed to be like Jaels. We’re supposed to be like the Nazarites who crush heads because our head is dedicated to Christ. You’re either going to dedicate your head to Christ as his people or you’re going to have your head crushed by his people.

You make the choice when you leave here today. You decide whether you want to live your life this week, you know, crushing Satan’s head, stomping on his head, or having your head stomped by God’s church. Christ is the supreme Nazarite bridegroom. Bring out his bride. Now, as reference here to the son, I got some notes on your outline about that. I mentioned Judges 5. That’s where Sisera’s head is crushed.

And it we read that

“Let all thine enemies perish, oh Lord, but let them that love him be as the son when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest 40 years.”

And Deborah was singing about those. That’s who you are. Let the let the you have the sun and the strength of the sun. If love God. And so you’re like Christ, this mighty Nazarite warrior. You’re like also Jesus, the greater Samson, but he’s also the greater Jacob.

Remember Jacob? Before he comes back to meet with Esau, before he crosses over into the promised land, he wrestles all night with God. And at the morning, God touches his socket and he limps. And the picture for us portrayed in Genesis 32:31, we read that

“As he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh.”

He walks into a sunrise, not a sunset. He has the strength of the sun coming up and he’s going over now back into the promised land to meet his brother and to do what he’s got to do in terms of the establishment of God’s people in the land again. You see, so it’s the sunrise. Now, this same thing is portrayed in the battle of Gideon. Gideon goes out, remember Gideon, the whole warrior for God, going to do God’s work in the book of Judges. And he goes and he fights God’s enemy. He goes through this very town, Penuel. He goes across that river border again out of the land and he does battle against bad dudes and then he battles him. He fights him all night long and it says he comes back at the ascent of the sun, which might say in your Bible, but that just means the uprising of the sun.

When he comes back in, he’s like Jacob coming back in with the power of the sun over him. Yeah, we’re halted. We limp. You’ve got troubles in your life, but those are troubles God reminds you to be submissive to him. And as you’re submissive to him, you carry the strength of the sun as you walk forth from this place, you’re the mighty warrior. You’re the Samson. You’re Jacob. You’re Gideon. Because you’re in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the greater of all those things.

We’re Nazarite warriors. We go forth with the power and strength of the sun, and we marry more people to our groom, the Lord Jesus. This is an exemplar. Jesus is the mighty Nazarite warrior with the brightness of the sun in his countenance, strength of the sun, head glowing as it were, the sun’s strength, the greater Samson. And that’s who you are. When you leave this place today, you should think of yourselves as one whose head is committed on the altar of God to do his will.

And you should not want to go forth and live a nice life of compromise and placating the culture round about us. You want to go out there to crush some heads. Romans tells us that Satan’s head will be crushed under our feet. You see, we want to go out and crush heads today. That’s what I want to do. I can’t wait till the next session in Salem to go down and testify on certain bills from a distinctively Christian perspective.

Nobody’s doing it. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of Christians in this state. Nobody’s going down there consistently testifying to the word of God and its impact for civil matters. Why is that? Because the church thinks that Jesus is some kind of weak nambby-pamby meek and mild boy. But he’s not. He’s the great Nazarite warrior. If you think Jesus is like that, you’re going to be as nice as Jesus and you’re going to go forth just, you know, yeah, well, we’re just trying to have our nice church service.

Forget it. We want to go forth from this place preaching God’s word and crushing heads in the providence of God. Not physically, of course, we do it through the worship of God and taking that transformed person of who we are, that brightness we leave here with into the world round about us. Now, you know, it doesn’t just mean Salem. It means wherever you go and whoever you speak to, you speak the truth in Christ.

You make you take opportunity to witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and to, you know, to tell people you’re sinning against God. He doesn’t like it. You should repent of your sins. Doesn’t mean just men. It means Jaels and it means teenage boys. I hope you leave here today with an understanding of who you are in Christ. You know, Boaz, and you kids out there, Elijah, Isaac, Jacob, Jesse, I want you to understand who you are here.

You’re a mighty warrior. You’re either going to have your head crushed or you’re going to be a head crusher for the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is that great Nazarite. Now, secondly, so we’ve talked about the basic elements. We’ve talked about the Nazarite warrior. And turn to the second page of your outline now and we’ll talk about another aspect of these three things. Jesus as protector and glorified eschatological man.

Big term really. It doesn’t it not that tough. Dust to gold is the only what you want to think about here. Adam is made dust. God breathes the breath of life into him. The ruach of the spirit of God into the word for dust which is also a light airy word. Adam is not light and airy because of his sin. He’s light airy because he’s a little baby. He’s an infant. He’s the first man. But when we get around to the end of the book and the larger, the greater Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is gold.

He has weight. He has glory. The word glory in the Bible means weight. He’s heavy. He’s heavy. He’s the eschatological man. Now, four columns. First column, Daniel chapter 2. Remember Nebuchadnezzar has this dream and he needs it interpreted. And Daniel comes up and the man of God on the spot. He says, “I’ll not only you know Nebuchadnezzar wanted to have the dream told to him, too.” So Daniel says, “I’ll tell you the dream and the interpretation.

You saw this creature, this beast, and it was comprised of these elements, gold and silver and brass and iron legs and feet with iron mixed with clay.” You see this, and we’ve talked about this. Don’t have time to go through all the details. We’ve talked about this. Daniel was describing the four world empires that would house the people of God and protect them in captivity. Remember, they’ve been kicked out the land now.

They’re preparing for the coming of Jesus. That’s when they’ll come back in as in the restoration just before all that happens. But while they’re in captivity, God provides these empires really to the coming of Christ. A series of four empires take care of them. And Nebuchadnezzar is the first. Nebuchadnezzar isn’t a bad guy. I mean, he is at first. In chapter 3, a chapter later, he says, “Oh, gold. That’s me, huh?” Daniel said, “You’re that gold thing.

God’s given the dominion over the birds and fowl to you. You’re the greater Adam, Nebuchadnezzar. And Adam gets the big head. And Adam goes off or Nebuchadnezzar rather gets the big head. And in chapter 3, he goes and builds this gold obelisk. And he says, “You got to worship this.” And at the end of the obelisk was a fiery furnace. If you don’t worship me in this golden image, I’m going to throw you in the furnace.

Say, “Well, that was the altar and the holy of holies in essence there.” But he was that he thought he was the great guy, but God humbled him, didn’t he? Nebuchadnezzar crawls around as the beasts and everything and he comes to the rightness of mind and he becomes then that golden empire in terms of Babylon that will protect God’s people. This image, what I’m trying to say is this image is not bad. Rome protected Paul.

Rome protected our savior. Pilate didn’t want to crucify Christ. So you have all that picture in Daniel chapter 2 and then in Daniel chapter 10 later on in the book, Daniel gives this picture as we’ve talked about earlier of the Lord Jesus Christ comes to him and he’s the greater of this image. He is the true protector of his people that will come and be manifest after all these other empires are crushed.

Jesus has his face like lightning and eyes like lamps. The way that gold that the beast in Daniel chapter 2 had a gold head. And Jesus has these different manifestations of who he is in Daniel chapter 10, which we’ve talked about. These things in Daniel 10 and Revelation 1 that we’ve that we’ve talked about and correlated are correlated to the temple or the tabernacle as well in terms of this chart. Now, the Point of all this, the point of all of this is that when these attributes are given in Revelation 1, it is the culmination moving from Adam to the greater Adam Nebuchadnezzar, the gold image, the various empires represented by the image in Daniel chapter 2, which would protect God’s people.

That all that was a picture of the tabernacle which had preceded it. Remember, God was with God’s people in the tabernacle. He protected them there in the context of that. And Jesus comes in as the end result of all that as the great protector of his people. He comes as the eschatological endpoint of man, the culmination, alpha and omega. He’s the second Adam. Okay? And so he as in terms of who we worship, we worship him for all these attributes.

But we also see he’s an exemplar to us. This is who we are moving toward as well. And so the church should be a protective institution for its members. The church is in Christ as Christ protected his people. So, we are to protect uh the members as well. But additionally, we’re supposed to be glorified men. We’re supposed to be men who have heaviness, weight, holiness, purity, righteousness, on and on and on.

Now, in Daniel chapter 2, the image that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about the beast at the end of those four successive empires who got worse and worse in terms of their fear of God till you had the Roman who had no fear of God whatsoever. You remember what happens then? A stone cut without hands crushes that entire system at one time. And that stone then grows to fill all the world. Remember that. What is the stone?

It’s a stone cut without hands. And in Exodus, I’ve given you the reference on your outline. In Exodus 20:25, God said that the altar stone could not have a tool laid on it. Okay? So that stone that crushes the empires who reject God as they go along in time, that stone is the altar stone. It involves the worship of God’s people in terms of the temple is the illusion here. It is the worship of God that crushes the empires, the ones that turn their back against God’s people.

And so it tells us that as the end point of who we are, Not only are we Nazarite warriors, but we got to remember that preeminently we are worshiping men and women. And it is the worship of God’s people that then result in them flowing out and the world is changed by that worship represented by the altar stone which is of course the Lord Jesus Christ. So as the endpoint of man, the exemplar to us, the Lord Jesus tells us that the church is to protect its members, we mature into Christ’s image. We don’t start there. When we come forth, we come forth in immaturity, but our lives, we mature. We get that white hair on the top through maturity. The bride in Revelation 21 reflects the maturity of man in Christ. That bride is glorified, heavy, and glowing. In Revelation 21, John sees the bride coming out of heaven. And the bride looks a lot like the groom because by the end of all those trials and tribulations, That fire has purified the church and she now glows at the brightness of Christ.

Now see that means that when we encounter trials and tribulations today, maybe it’s a trial for you listening to a sermon like this, but what it means is as you struggle to do it and as you respond not with complaining but in cheerfulness that God matures you and makes you glow. He makes you golden. He makes you shiny. The church is made shiny through its trials and tribulations. Jesus in his humanity, it says that he was perfected