Main Text: Revelation 1
I want you to go back in time for a few moments and imagine that you are going to the tomb of Jesus Christ with the women who gathered early that morning to anoint His body with burial spices. I want you to imagine entering the garden where Jesus had been laid, walking together and wondering how the stone would be rolled away so that you could prepare the body of the One who was supposed to be the Messiah—the One who was supposed to save Israel and restore them to their former glory.
As you enter that garden, you expect to see a sealed tomb and a large stone, with soldiers standing guard so that no one can steal His body away. Yet when you step inside, the stone has already been rolled away. The guards who were supposed to be watching the tomb are lying on the ground. There is no blood. There is no sign of struggle. And when you look inside the place where you watched Jesus be laid, He is not there.
Imagine the confusion you would feel at that moment, not knowing the rest of the story and not yet understanding what had happened.
In another Gospel account, a woman searching for Jesus sees an angel but assumes he is a gardener, and she weeps and asks, “Sir, where have they taken the body of Jesus?” The people who first discovered the empty tomb did not immediately assume that He had risen. They assumed His body had been taken.
So you are confused. Then the angels speak and say, “Fear not, for the One you are seeking is no longer dead. He is risen, just as He said.”
Now hope begins to rise within you. Yet there is still one problem: you have not seen Him. You have only heard that He is risen.
So you return to the disciples and say, “We saw the empty tomb. We saw the guards lying on the ground. We encountered heavenly messengers who told us He is alive.” And what did the disciples say? “That sounds too good to be true.” The Bible tells us they did not believe.
Now imagine that all of this happened, but days passed and nobody ever saw Jesus. He never appeared on the road to Emmaus. He never appeared in the upper room. He never showed His disciples the nail prints in His hands and feet.
If that had been the case, they would still have had an empty tomb. They would still have had the testimony of angels. They would still have had the witness of the women. Yet they would not have seen Jesus.
Imagine years passing and Jesus never appearing again. What would that have done to the testimony of the resurrection?
Even with eyewitness testimony, the Sanhedrin spread the rumor that the disciples stole His body. Imagine the lies that could have been told if nobody had ever seen Him.
But thank God people saw Jesus.
He did not come out of the tomb and immediately return to heaven hoping everyone would believe. He appeared to the grieving. He appeared to those He had called into service. He appeared to those He had chosen as witnesses to the world.
We do not only have the testimony of angels. We do not only have the testimony of an empty tomb.
We have three women who saw Him.
We have eleven disciples who saw Him.
We have two men on the road to Emmaus who saw Him.
Peter, who denied Him at the crucifixion, later testified that he looked into the face of the risen Christ.
Scripture even tells us He appeared to more than five hundred witnesses at one time, and the writer specifically notes that many of them were still alive, inviting people to go ask them for themselves.
The resurrection is a wonderful truth. Yet the number of eyewitnesses makes the testimony even more trustworthy.
Then we come to something remarkable in Revelation. John gives us the final recorded viewing of Jesus Christ by a human being in Scripture. He is the last living disciple to see Jesus face to face before eternity. Here in Revelation chapter 1, John describes the risen and glorified Savior.
This chapter presents Jesus not only as alive, but alive with power—and alive with a plan.
As John beholds the risen Christ in His glory, he describes Him in a way he had never seen Him before, even during His earthly ministry. One day, this is how we will see Him ourselves.
So this morning, I want us to see three observations about the risen King from John’s experience—truths that should comfort us, strengthen us, and reshape how we think about our Savior.
The King Is Alive
The first observation is the simplest and the most foundational: the King is alive.
John wrote Revelation around 90 A.D., about sixty years after Jesus walked the earth. By that time, the other disciples had been martyred. John himself had been exiled to the Isle of Patmos because of his faith.
While suffering there, he saw Jesus again.
Revelation 1:1 says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.”
Notice the present tense. Jesus is still working. The Father gives Him the message. He gives it to His angel. The angel delivers it to John.
Jesus is not inactive in heaven. He is alive and active.
John continues in Revelation 1:4–5:
“Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come… and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.”
He does not say Jesus was the faithful witness. He says He is.
Then Jesus Himself speaks in Revelation 1:8:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending… which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
He repeats again in verse 11:
“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”
John is making something unmistakably clear: Jesus is still alive.
Yet when John sees Him, his response is very different from earlier encounters.
In Revelation 1:12–16, John describes Him:
“I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man… his head and his hairs were white like wool… his eyes were as a flame of fire… his feet like unto fine brass… his voice as the sound of many waters… his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”
John uses comparisons because human language cannot fully describe what he saw.
And how does he respond?
Revelation 1:17 says:
“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.”
This is the same John who leaned on Jesus’ chest at supper. Yet now he falls at His feet overwhelmed by His glory.
Then Jesus says:
“Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore… and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen…”
He is alive.
He is alive in power.
He is alive with purpose.
And that should comfort us, because we are not worshipping a dead Savior. We are praying to a risen King who still reigns.
The King Has Accomplished Our Victory
John does not only show us that the King is alive. He also shows us what this living King has accomplished through His death and resurrection.
Revelation 1:5 calls Him “the faithful witness.” He is the faithful witness of the glory and power of Almighty God, the One sent into the world to die for sinners and rise again conquering death and hell. When Jesus came, He did not come merely to perform miracles or to establish a following. He came to reveal the Father. He came to testify that God is not distant and uninterested in His creation, but loving, purposeful, and near to those who call upon His name.
In John 12:23–28, as His hour approached, Jesus said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” Then He prayed, “Father, glorify thy name.” And the Father answered from heaven, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Through His obedience, His suffering, His death, and His resurrection, Jesus testified not only to His own glory, but to the glory of the Father who sent Him—and who loves you enough to send His Son into the world for your salvation.
Revelation 1:5 also describes Jesus as “the first begotten of the dead.” That phrase is filled with hope. When someone is the firstborn in a family, they are not the last to be born—they are simply the first of others who follow. In the same way, when Scripture calls Jesus the first begotten of the dead, it is telling us that He was the first to rise in resurrection glory, but He will not be the last.
That means everyone who believes on Him will share in His resurrection.
That is wonderful news, because every one of us knows what it feels like to say goodbye to someone we love. There are faces that come to mind immediately when we begin talking about death and resurrection. There are voices we miss hearing. There are empty seats that remind us of loss. Those days can feel lonely, and those absences can feel heavy. Yet because Jesus rose from the grave, those who belong to Him will rise as well.
Scripture tells us that those who are alive and remain will not go ahead of those who sleep in Christ. They will rise first, and then we will follow. We will be glorified together. We will be perfected together. And we will be reunited with those we have had to say goodbye to. Death will not have the final word, because Jesus Himself has declared, “I have the keys of hell and of death.”
He has conquered the greatest enemy we face, and because He lives, we will live also.
Revelation 1:6 tells us something else He has accomplished: “He hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.” Notice the wording carefully. It does not say He will make us kings and priests someday. It says He has made us kings and priests already.
That means right now, in this present life, we are living as representatives of Jesus Christ. Like priests of old, we come before God in prayer. We intercede for others. We worship Him. We labor for His glory. Yet we are also described as kings—not because we walk through this world with pride, but because through Christ we belong to His royal household. We are not outsiders standing at the gates of the kingdom wishing we could enter. Through Jesus Christ, we have already been brought inside.
And Revelation 1:5 also declares that He is “the prince of the kings of the earth.” By rising from the grave, Jesus established Himself in authority far above every ruler, every government, and every power on earth. People worry about wars and elections. They worry about instability in nations and uncertainty in leadership. Yet our King is not threatened by any authority in this world.
Every ruler answers to Jesus Christ.
Every president answers to Jesus Christ.
Every king answers to Jesus Christ.
There is no authority on earth that can rival the authority of our risen Savior. As believers, we may not always like what we see happening around us, but we do not have to live in fear, because our King reigns over all.
The King Is Coming Again
Then John gives us one more promise about the risen King. He tells us that this same Jesus who rose from the grave is coming again.
Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.” Just as the presence of God descended in clouds upon Mount Sinai when He revealed Himself to Israel, Jesus will return in visible glory and power. This will not be a hidden event. It will not be something only a few people notice. Every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him will see Him. Every tribe and nation of the earth will recognize His authority when He comes.
Scripture tells us that many will mourn when they see Him, because they will realize too late who He truly is. Yet for those who belong to Him, His return is not something to fear. It is something to long for.
Jesus Himself declares in Revelation 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending… which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” That means just as surely as He was present at the beginning of creation, He will be present at the end of this age when He returns to establish His kingdom.
Jesus did not rise from the grave so that He could remain distant from His people. He rose so that He might return for His people.
Matthew 24:31 tells us, “He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” He is coming back to gather His church. He is coming back to defeat every enemy. He is coming back to cast death and hell into the lake of fire. And He is coming back to establish a perfect kingdom where sin no longer reigns and suffering no longer follows us through life.
Scripture promises that when He comes there will be no more tears, no more death, no more sorrow, and no more pain. The former things will pass away, and He will make all things new.
Just as John saw Him, and just as the disciples saw Him, and just as more than five hundred witnesses saw Him after His resurrection, one day we will see Him too. He is coming again in glory, and when He comes, He will make everything right.
Praise God for the coming King—and for the kingdom He is bringing with Him.
Are You Ready for the King to Come?
So here is the question.
If the risen King returned today, would you be ready?
Revelation 1:5 tells us:
“Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.”
He invites you to be washed.
He invites you to belong to Him.
He invites you to share in His resurrection.
The King is coming.
Are you ready?
Leave a comment