Eyes of Fire - Part 2

**Jim Scudder, Jr.** (0:04)
His eyes were as a flame of fire.
Now this is really amazing, the eyes. Why does it say this? And was John looking at Jesus, did he actually see fire in his eyes?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:23)
Welcome to InGrace with Jim Scudder, the senior pastor of Quentin Road Baptist Church in suburban Chicago. He is also the president of Dayspring Bible College, shaping the next generation of Christian leaders.

**Jim Scudder, Jr.** (0:37)
Thank you for joining us today here on InGrace, and we're going to be in the Book of Revelation today in our series Armageddon's Dawn, a verse by verse study of the Book of Revelation. And we're going to be finishing a message that we started yesterday called Eyes of Fire, where we were reading in Revelation chapter 1 about the revelation of Jesus Christ. We're going to see him in his glory. And today, we're really going to see that, you know. Yesterday, we stopped by talking about the seven golden candlesticks or the lampstand. And so we're going to go over that today. What is this? And that's where a lot of people disengage from Revelation. They think it's too symbolic, too hard to understand. But remember, in a good hermeneutic or a method of interpretation of the Bible, especially Revelation, look in context. Often the context does tell us what these things are. And sure enough here, we're going to find that. What are these seven stars? What are these different images that we're seeing here that God is revealing about the end times? And so I think you're going to enjoy our study. Don't forget we have a free Armageddon Dawn Prophecy Chart for you. You can look at it right on our website or print it out right there at ingraceradio.com. That's ingraceradio.com. Or we can mail you one. You can request it on ingraceradio.com or give us a call right now. The number is 1-800-78-GRACE, 1-800-78-GRACE. We also would love to invite you to do an Israel Solidarity Tour. I've been to Israel 30 times. We've taken thousands of you to Israel. We're going to go to Israel again in February, and we're going to show our love and support to Israel as we see the amazing land and people of Israel. To get a free brochure, it's the same website ingraceradio.com, and then click on travel, or give us a call and we'll mail you one. 1-800-78-GRACE.
Think about a golden candlestick or a golden, let's say, lamp stand. Gold is precious. Gold is to be pure. And that should be what the church is.
Gold. But we see churches today, even in our suburbs, even these mega churches that were birthed in this area, that weren't pure, and have had serious moral or financial indiscretions. And we need to strive for purity and real holiness that comes through real, living relationship with Jesus. Pure, gold, precious, valuable. The church is valuable. And these golden lamp stands, Jesus is in the midst. In other words, Jesus is here today. He is our shepherd. He is why we are here today. He is, I believe, in our midst because of believers and the Spirit of God that lives within. And the golden candlestick is a lamp stand because the church needs to be standing for the truth of God. And that light that Jesus said, don't put a bushel over your light. Put it up on a hill so that people can see it. What good is light if it's covered?
So the church, a picture of the church is this golden lamp stand, something that is going to hold forth the truth of the light of Christ and radiate that, lift it up and share that with the world. That's what the church should be.
And he saw seven golden candlesticks. Look at verse 13 In the midst of seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man. This is Jesus, but he's different than what he looked like when he walked this earth. In some ways, he must have been the same. He must have similar features, but all the features were a little different.
So what does Jesus look like now, today? When we see him, what will we see?
Clothed with a garment down to his foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. What is that talking about? We're talking about a robe and a breastplate like a priest would wear.
Holy, consecrated for the purpose of righteousness. He would have the look and the office of a priest. And you know what he actually does? In Hebrews 4, 14, it says, Seen then we have a great high priest that is passed into heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Jesus is our great high priest. And so it's only fitting here that as John got a glimpse of Jesus and his glory, that Jesus has a golden breastplate like the priest and a garment like a priest. And then it says, verse 14, His head and his hairs were white like wool.