Revelation 1:12-16 - Prophet, Priest, King and Judge

“Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. I have often thought about how most of us try to make God into the God or Jesus that we specifically want Him to be in our lives, usually based on what is going on in lives at that particular time. We have no problem looking at Him as our Prophet, Priest and King! And for sure in Scripture Jesus fulfills all these offices!  We are told in Deuteronomy 18:15-18, that God would raise up One Who would be a Prophet like Moses. And actually Peter quotes this passage in his message on Solomon’s Porch at the temple in Acts 3:22-23. We are told in the book of Hebrews that Jesus is a High Priest like Aaron. And we are also told that Jesus is a King like David because He is of the line and lineage of David. We love to worship Jesus as our Prophet, Priest and King, but it is not often we hear how that Jesus is also the “Judge” who will hold His people and even all the world accountable for how they live and whether or not they repent of their sins! Paul was preaching on Mars Hill in Athens in Acts 17 after he observed the people there had made an altar to the “Unknown God”. It appears they had a desire to worship God but didn’t know Who He was so they made up one! Sounds like many of us today! In this passage Paul proclaims to them Who the unknown God is. “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:29-31) Paul said that God knows that in our ignorance we are groping for a God to worship, and so we end up making up one that fits our desires and needs. But now, after the appearance of Jesus Christ in His first advent, after the death of Jesus on the cross and after His resurrection we are commanded to repent! We are without excuse today! Jesus has come and filled the offices of Prophet, Priest and King, but Paul says that God has appointed a Day on which He will judge the world in a just and righteous way by the Man, Jesus Christ, whom He has ordained. And we can be assured who this Man is, because He was raised from the dead!  Jesus is the Man who has also been appointed and ordained to the final Judge of the world! I don’t about you, but in the past few years I have been very disappointed and sadden by the corruption that is being exposed in the highest places in our American government. But as I read these verses in Revelation I am encouraged to know that one day Jesus will come and He will be the Righteous Judge who will execute judgment correctly in every case and in everyone! This is the Jesus John sees in the midst of the seven churches and in this final book of the Bible! And I believe that, that “Day” is coming very very soon!