Unveiling the Glory of Christ: From Heaven's Throne to Earth's Savior

We were made for more. We were made to worship an awesome God—and that's what we're going to be doing for all of eternity.

If you think eternity is going to be sitting on a cloud with harps for endless time, or some place where everything's amazing including your golf game, you've got the wrong picture. Eternity is this wonderful place where Christ is seated on the throne, where the Lamb of God is the light. There's no need for sun or moon or stars because the light comes from the Lamb himself.\

And here's something that might blow your mind: eternity doesn't start in some near future when our bodies die. Eternity starts the moment we receive Christ.

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My Goal For You Today

What I want to do through Isaiah 6 and John 1 is rip open that veil a little bit so you can see more of the awesomeness of God. I want this to cause a reaction in you. I want you to see God in such a way that you have to grab your Bible when you get home today, and tomorrow, and the next day and say, "Wow, I didn't know this. God is so amazing. That's in the scriptures about Christ. I need to read more of Him."

Because in reading more of Him, we are transformed into more and more of His likeness. In reading more of Him, we take little glimpses of what we'll be doing in eternity, and that response causes wonder in us.

Has anybody read the Bible and just sat there thinking, "Wow, let me just sit a moment and wonder while I take this in"?

You know what the root word for worship is? Wonder.

So if you have a struggle with worship, you really have a struggle with wonder. And if you want a remedy for that, spend more time in the scriptures asking God to show you His glory. And He will, for He is a rewarder of those who—not passively seek Him—but diligently seek Him.

Isaiah's Vision of Glory

Let me take you to Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1-7. In the year of King Uzziah's death, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings—with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

And they called to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory."

The foundations trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filled with smoke.

And Isaiah said, "Woe is me! For I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

Now here's what's mind-blowing: John 12:41 tells us that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke of Him. This vision in Isaiah 6 is a vision of Jesus before He became a man—the pre-incarnate Son of God in all His glory.

The Majesty of the Throne

King Uzziah was probably the greatest king in terms of scope outside of David and Solomon. And in the year of this glorious king's death, Isaiah sees something that puts everything in perspective: there is no comparison between earthly glory and God's glory. Great kings die. Our Lord doesn't die.

His throne is lofty and exalted. There is nothing above this throne. The train of His robe fills the entire temple—if you've seen the weddings of the Queen of England and how long those trains are, you know that's a symbol of majesty. The longer the robe, the more majesty. His train fills the entire temple.

And these seraphim—if they just showed up in this room, we'd all probably wet ourselves. They are awesome beings. And yet they're nothing in comparison to the King who is high and lofty.

Holy, Holy, Holy

These created beings call to one another: "Holy, holy, holy."

Do you know what holy means? Holy means separate from, set apart, above the rest, not like anything else.

If God is one thing over all the rest, if you need to grasp one thing about God that you can hold onto, it's that He's holy. He's not like you. He's not like me. He's not like anything in all of creation. In fact, if you took all of creation in its beauty, in its power, in its greatness, in its majesty, and you balled it up into one awesome being, you still would not have God—because He created it all.

We need to be very cautious about what we attribute to God. The people of Israel got into trouble because they thought God was like them. Psalm 50 says God rebukes them: "You think that I'm like you, but I'm not."

The only God that can save is the God declared to us in scripture, and He is holy.

Why do they say "holy" three times? Whenever the Hebrews wanted to emphasize a point, they repeated it. Anytime you see repetition in scripture, it's very, very important. Pay attention.

Isaiah's Response

This image invoked something in Isaiah. When he saw the Lord, he cried out: "Woe is me! For I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips."

Think about this for a moment. If we could put all of our righteousness together on our best day, we probably still wouldn't compare to Isaiah. He lived in a time without the constant bombardment of ungodly influences we face today. Isaiah would have been far more righteous than we are.

And yet when he sees the Lord, he pronounces curses on himself. Why? Because out of the heart, the mouth speaks. If you have unclean lips, you have an unclean heart.

That response Isaiah has to the holy revelation of God is something each and every one of us will have one day. We will see the Lord as He is. And in Revelation where it says He'll wipe away every tear from our eyes, I believe that's because we're going to have a lot of tears. We're going to see the Lord and say, "Oh my goodness, God. I was so far. I thought I was near, but I wasn't even close."

The Word Made Flesh

Now turn with me to John chapter 1.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty. The one who in the beginning was the Word.

You might be thinking, "This doesn't say in the beginning was Jesus." That's true, because there was a time when Jesus was not. We know Jesus as God who became man—two natures in one person. Before He became a man, we call Him the Word.

How do we know the Word is Jesus? Verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

The eternal one we read about in Isaiah 6—He's the one who existed in the beginning. He was with God and He was God. If there's any doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was God, just throw it out. The Word was in the beginning, took on flesh and dwelt among us.

The Creator of All Things

"All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."

Have you gone outside and looked at the stars recently? All of their glory—if you came even close to one of those stars, you would melt like a tiny wax figurine before a blast furnace. And yet He put all of them where they're supposed to be.

Every mountain God has raised up. Every beautiful flower you've seen and haven't seen. Every flower in the field that no man has ever looked upon. All of it from the beginning of time to the end of time—created by and sustained by our Lord.

Every precious diamond, every precious stone, every fish of the sea and bird of the air and beast of the field. All of it created by Him and through Him and for Him.

But I haven't yet mentioned that which is unseen—the powers and principalities and rulers of this age. All things came into being through this One who is seated on the throne.

All things, including you, my friends—the Lord knows every number of hairs upon your head.

The Stench of Sin

Now I want you to think about this for a moment. Have you ever been in a situation where something smells so terribly bad you want to run away and never come back?

Can you imagine what it would be like for God who dwells in holiness and cannot look upon sin to take on the nature of flesh and walk among mankind that reeks of it?

That's the love you keep continuing to grow in and see of Christ.

For He came, and in Him is life. And the life was the light of men.

There is no life apart from the One who is life Himself. Eternal life—we like to think of it as some concept. It's not. Eternal life is a person.

I've asked people before: "I know you say you love Jesus, but if you don't want to be with Him right now, if you don't want to know Him right now, if there's no hunger in you to hear more of this, if there's no thirst in you to consume the One who is living water—what makes you think you want to be in heaven?"

He is eternal life. He's not just some security blanket that takes us from hell and brings us into some separate area. No—He is life. He is your life. And you will not want to be separated from Him.

Receiving Christ

"He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as did receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name."

This word "receive" isn't just politely taking a gift at Christmas. This word means to tenaciously take hold of something to the point of making that object a part of yourself.

Think of blind Bartimaeus. He's sitting on the road as a beggar, and he hears Jesus is coming. He knows that unless he has this man, he has nothing. So he cries out: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And that's not enough. He gets up—a blind man—and runs toward Christ, shouting, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Why? Because he saw his need and he saw the beauty of the One who came to set him free. And he said, "No, nothing's going to get in my way. I will receive Him, or I have nothing."

That's the tenacity behind this word "receive."

Those who believe in His name—who tenaciously grab hold of Him and say, "I will not let You go until You bless me"—to them God gives new life. Takes them out of Adam, gives them new life in Christ.

Who Is Your Jesus?

So close your eyes for a moment and think: Who is this God that I worship who goes by the name of Jesus?

Because if He's anything less than God-man and high priest, then He is a truncated Jesus that cannot save.

But thankfully, as long as we take breath, we are able to repent of any wrong beliefs we hold about who Jesus is. We are able to turn and start believing correctly.

When Jesus comes on the scene and says, "Repent and believe, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," I want you to understand that repentance and faith are both commanded in the present tense. It's a command that as long as it's called today, we must obey: Repent and believe.

You have so much more room for repentance. I'm going to be honest—the more you read of this, the more you're going to have to repent. The more you read of who God is, what He has done and is doing, you'll find wrong beliefs that need to be repented of.

And the beautiful thing is you get the opportunity to do that. Even more wonderful is that He doesn't chastise us because we don't have everything correct right now.

But He is pleased to call us brethren.

Why? Because we see our need for Him, and we don't let anything get in the way of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So if I can cause you by taking a look at Christ in the scriptures to go home and read more for yourself, I'll say mission accomplished. We did something today.