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"Son of Man" was the Old Testament term Jesus adroitly adopted to describe himself. On one level it was just a figure of speech for "human being." On another level it had, since Daniel's vision (Daniel 7:13-14), conjured up a super-human dimension. Jesus invited this second understanding (see, for instance, John 1:51, Luke 21:27, and Matthew 26:64). After Jesus' death and resurrection, the Council trying Stephen (Acts 7:55-58a) stoned him for blasphemy after he reported seeing the Son of Man at God's right hand.

Revelation 1:9-18

1. From verse 9, would you say that John was easily intimidated?
2. Would John have been startled to see Jesus as he remembered him?
3. How (v. 17) did seeing Jesus as the Son of Man affect him?
4. Had this happened to John before (see Matthew 17:1-7)?
5. What role would the robe and sash indicate (see Leviticus 8:7)?
6. What impressions would be conveyed (vv. 14-16) by his snow-white hair? … blazing eyes? … glowing feet? … thundering voice? … sharpened tongue? … radiant face?
7. Why would a vision of this Person who held the keys of death and the grave (vv. 17-18) encourage persecuted Christians to endure?

Ask God for a heightened sense of his overwhelming purity and power-combined with gratitude for his gracious favor.

9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God's Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. 10 It was the Lord's Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly, I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast. 11 It said, "Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea."

12 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, "Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, let me glimpse the staggering nature of the Resurrection, and its transforming power.

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