14 day plan

The Taste and Smell of Glory: Aesthetics and Faith

Day 14 of 14

NIV

Revelation 1:12-17

12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

Reflection: Meeting with God: Heaven’s court

I’ve never been to a theme park, but I imagine the book of Revelation to be a bit like that sort of dizzying experience. Look! Listen! Feel! Touch! Smell! So overwhelming, I fainted dead! says John. Twenty-two chapters pulse with sound and light, the weird and the wonderful, intimate, but mostly epic theatre, architecture and design—the A-Z of salvation history in IMAX proportions…and what a whoosh of aesthetics.

We’ve jumped from John’s Gospel to John’s Revelation of Jesus. The apostle is old—old and experienced in what suffering and endurance have thrown at him. Seeped in Scripture, and ‘in the Spirit’ he encounters symbolic prophetic visions. He weaves these shake-em-up scenes of Old Testament allusions* into letters to seven churches in Asia—seven churches that need an endurance/road-worthy check. Mind boggling (understand it we might not) and hugely imaginative (be confronted by it, we will), the visions take us ever-closer to the epicentre of salvation history.

There’s nothing quite like closing in on God in heaven’s courts to kindle our resolve and passion to worship. Who is our God but deep and swift, high and unsearchable, vivid and pure, dark and mysterious, passionate and safe, consuming and fearful! Can you hear the roar, like waves and peals of thunder? —an ocean of people in heaven shouting: ‘Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!’

Come, meet with God.

Prayer:

“Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne.

Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.

Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee,

and hail him as thy matchless king through all eternity….

Crown him the Lord of love; behold his hands and side,

rich wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified;

no angels in the sky can fully bear that sight,

but downward bends their burning eye at mysteries so bright…

All hail, Redeemer, hail! for thou hast died for me;

thy praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity.” Hymn by Matthew Bridges

*There are over 1000 allusions, parallels, and quotes from the Old Testament in Revelation.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Suggested Plans

14

Human flourishing

7

A week with the Philippians

Revelation 1:1-20

Prologue

1The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Greetings and Doxology

4John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

7“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”

and “every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him”;

and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”

So shall it be! Amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John’s Vision of Christ

9I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

19“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.