NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE LIVING ONE
EASTER SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 1:7-18
MARCH 30, 1997
In the Aegean Sea, there is an island called Patmos. It is a very small island. It is only 50 square miles, but it was useful to the Roman Empire. During the Roman era, this island of Patmos was used as a place of banishment for political prisoners. The Bible tells us that at the close of the first century the Apostle John, when he was very old, was banished to the island of Patmos because of his proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. According to church tradition, the year was 95 AD when John was banished to Patmos. Domitian was the Emperor of the Roman Empire. According to that same tradition, John remained on the island of Patmos for 18 months until Nerva ascended the throne of Rome.
In the year 1088, a monastery was built on that island of Patmos called the Monastery of St. John. It was built by order of Christodoulos. It was built next to the grotto in which, allegedly, John had lived. Today, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims journey to the island of Patmos every single year to see the place where the Apostle John once was incarcerated. But most of all they travel to see the place where Jesus Christ appeared to John, where Jesus Christ appeared resurrected and alive with all of His heavenly glory, His deity unveiled, His face shining like the sun at full strength. It was in that place at that time that Jesus Christ said these words: “Ego eimi Ho Zon,” “I am the Living One.”
This morning, on this Easter Sunday, we examine this great title of Jesus Christ, “Ho Zon,” “The Living One.” Of all the titles of Christ, this title is perhaps the most precious, and for two reasons. First of all, because we are dying. Physically we are dying, but He is The Living One and He is the hope of the world.
If you took philosophy in high school or in college, then you’ve probably heard of Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy Bentham was a British philosopher. He is called the father of utilitarianism. Jeremy Bentham believed that all things should be judged on the basis of their usefulness, their utility. “The greatest good for the greatest number.” That was his motto. Jeremy Bentham was a brilliant man. He graduated from Oxford University, Queens College at Oxford University, at the age of 15. He was a wealthy man. He founded the University College Hospital in London, England. For many years he served on the hospital board. But in the year 1832 Jeremy Bentham had a problem. He loved serving on the hospital board, and he wanted to continue serving but he was 84 years old, and he was dying. He struck a deal with the hospital board. He said, “I will give this hospital a vast amount of money—I will endow this hospital—if upon my death you embalm my body and prepare it in a special way and place it in my favorite chair and put it in a mahogany case with a glass window and push it up to the table of the board room for every board meeting in perpetuity.
Well, the board of the University College Hospital in London didn’t like that. They didn’t want a dead guy on the board. But they did want Jeremy Bentham’s money, and so they agreed to this. Upon his death, the hospital was endowed, and Jeremy Bentham was prepared and placed in that mahogany case. For 92 years, from 1832 to 1924, Jeremy Bentham’s body sat in on every board meeting of the University College Hospital in London, England. Even today you can go to that hospital, and you can see the body of Jeremy Bentham still in the mahogany case. He is no longer, however, allowed to sit in on the board meetings because they had a hard time finding people willing to be on the board. People didn’t want to serve with a dead guy. They didn’t want to be reminded of their own mortality.
We are all mortal, and this Easter morning God wants us to understand that. You know, ten years ago, a man named Robert Fraser was interviewed on television. It was his hundredth birthday. The interviewer said, “Mr. Fraser, to what do you attribute your longevity?” Robert Fraser said “breathing.” The interviewer looked a little bit confused, and he said, “Do you mean deep breathing exercises?” Robert Fraser said, “No. I mean if you want to keep living, you’ve got to keep breathing.” The interviewer smiled and he said “Well, Mr. Fraser, I hope that next year I’ll be able to interview you on your 101st birthday.” Robert Fraser smiled and said, “I don’t see why not. You look pretty healthy to me!”
Well, three years later, at the age of 103, Robert Fraser died. Despite his sense of humor and his great genetics, he was mortal just like the rest of us. You know, my wish would be that all of you at Fiddler’s Green this morning could live a hundred years in this world, but the reality is we are all mortal. The Bible says, “All flesh is grass and all of its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls.” The reality is that mortality is working even now in our bodies as we sit right here at Fiddler’s Green. We all are aging.
All of you have billions of brain cells. You have nerve cells and glial cells. You have, perhaps, a hundred billion brain cells in your brain. But even as you sit here at Fiddler’s Green, most of us are losing brain cells. In fact, most scientists believe that if you’re thirty years of age or older, you are losing one hundred thousand brain cells a day, thirty-six million brain cells a year. In the next thirty years, you will lose one billion brain cells. Now, this is all acceptable. Your brain function is not necessarily impaired by that, but it’s a reminder that mortality is at work within our bodies even as we sit here at Fiddler’s Green.
Even as we sit here at Fiddler’s Green, our taste buds are dying. I mean in your mouth, on your tongue, you have many bumps called papillas. On each bump, if you’re thirty years old, you have an average of 245 taste buds. Those taste buds enable you to distinguish the four great taste sensations. You can distinguish between that which is sweet, that which is sour, that which is bitter, and that which is salty. By the time you’re 80, you’ll only have an average of 88 taste buds on each papilla because our taste buds die as we age. The bummer is that those taste buds that die most rapidly are those taste buds that enable us to enjoy things that are sweet. The taste buds that hold on and live the longest are those ones that enable us to experience things that are sour. The reason that a lot of elderly people don’t eat a lot of food is not that they are necessarily diseased. It’s because food just doesn’t taste as good to them as once it did.
Of course, as we age, our metabolism is slowing down and we are less able to endure temperature extremes and our reaction time is slowing down. The reason elderly people drive their cars slowly is not because they want to bug us. Reaction times are slowing down. God wants us to understand we are all mortal and mortality is at work within us. We call it aging but really it’s dying. We are all dying but Jesus Christ said, “Fear not.” Why did He say, “Fear not”? Because He is Ho Zon. He is The Living One and He offers, the Bible tells us, a new body, a resurrection body to everybody who believes in His name.
Yes, the body you have now is dying but if you believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you are promised a resurrection body just like the resurrected body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, “We know if this earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God not made with human hands eternal in the heavens.” In Philippians, chapter 3, the Bible says, “Our commonwealth is in heaven and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power which enables Him to subject all things unto Himself.” In 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, the Bible says, “We would not have you ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, that you do not grieve as others do. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God through Jesus will take with Him those who have fallen asleep. For we declare to you by the word of God that we who are alive, who are left until His coming, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a cry of command with the archangels call with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise.”
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, the Bible describes the resurrection body that is promised to Christians, and we are told that that body is fit for the heavens and indestructible and no longer subject to decay. We are dying but Jesus Christ is The Living One and He is the hope of the world.
Now there’s a second reason why this title is so precious, and the second reason is this: Not only are we dying but we are dead. You see, the Bible tells us that physically we are dying. The Bible says spiritually we are dead. Spiritually the human race is dead, but Jesus Christ is Ho Zon. He is The Living One and He offers spiritual life.
The Greek word for death is the word “thanatos.”It sometimes referred to physical death and it sometimes referred to spiritual death. When Jesus stood near the tomb of Lazarus, Martha spoke to Him and said, “Lord, if You had only been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus said to her, Martha, your brother will rise again. “Martha said, I know, Lord, that he’ll rise on the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he dies yet shall he live, and he who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
In that little passage, Jesus uses the word death in two different ways. He uses it to refer to physical death. “He who believes in Me though he dies physically yet shall he live.” He also uses it to refer to spiritual death. “He who believes in Me will never die spiritually.” Once you receive the spiritual life that He offers, you’ll never die spiritually. But apart from Christ, the world, the Bible tells us, is spiritually dead and that is because we are separated from God and God is the source of life, spiritual life. We are separated from God because of sin.
By way of an illustration, perhaps you’ve heard of a plant that is called dodder. The dodder plant is sometimes considered to be a weed but it’s a member of the morning glory family. Dodder has white flowers, and these flowers are grown in tight bunches. The weird thing about the dodder plant is that it has not life of its own. It is a parasitical plant. It must live off a host plant. Dodder must live in symbiosis. It’s a symbiotic plant. It has no life of its own. It draws its life from the host plant. If you were to take dodder from its host plant, it would immediately die because it has no life of its own. You could plant it in the ground. You could water it. You could use Miracle-Gro. You could talk to it. It would still be dead because it must live in symbiosis. It must draw its life from the host.
You see, the Bible would have us to understand that that is the way that human beings are spiritually. We have no life of our own. We must draw our life from the host, who is God. Apart from God we are spiritually dead. We must live in symbiosis. We must draw our life from God who is the host. And, you see, the problem is the human race is separated from God. That’s what the Bible tells us. The human race is separated from God because of sin, because of what theologians call “the fall.” And because we are separated from God, the host, we are dead. But, of course, that is why the Bible tells us we must be born again. That is why the Bible tells us we must be born anew.
When Jimmy Carter ascended the Presidency of the United States, he told the nation that he had been born again. In his most recent book, called “Living Faith,” he speaks in a fresh way about being born again. The Bible tells us that every single person needs to be born again if they would have spiritual life. That’s what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John, chapter 3. “You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born anew.” So, we are spiritually dead, separated from God, but there’s hope through Jesus Christ. He died on the cross in substitutionary atonement. He paid the penalty for your sin and for my sin. If we would receive Him as Savior and embrace Him as Lord, then He sends His spirit Within us and we are born anew and we are reconnected, reconciled with the Father who is the host, and we are given spiritual life.
We live in a world that longs for spiritual life. We live in a world of people who are spiritually dead and they’re trying to fill the void. Tonight, you can look into the sky. If you look into the northwest sky, you will see the Hale-Bopp comet. When you look at that comet tonight, it will be 122 million miles from the surface of the earth. When you look at that comet tonight, it will be traveling at a speed of 43 thousand miles per hour. The core of that comet has a diameter of approximately 20 miles and the tail of the comet is 25 million miles long.
The last time that comet passed this planet, scientists tell us, was more than 4,200 years ago, in the year 2213 BC when Pepe was on the throne of Egypt and the pyramids were new and the Egyptians were wrapping their bodies in mummification. When you look up at that comet tonight, for you it probably is little more than a celestial curiosity, a beautiful, wonderful celestial curiosity. But, of course, we all know that for 39 people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, that comet was a kind of marker, a kind of omen. They honestly believed that there was a UFO in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet waiting to take them to a higher level of existence, waiting to take them to a kind of androgynous heaven if only they could free themselves of their physical encasements.
What an amazing tragedy. And we feel for those 39 who died and for all of their families. But we ask ourselves, “How can something so bizarre and so strange happen?” But, you see, we live in a crazy world. People are spiritually dead, and they are trying to fill the void. The Bible says, “In the last days some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirit and doctrines of demons through the pretensions of liars whose consciouses are seared.” The Bible says, “In the last days, people will no longer endure sound teaching but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own liking and they will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander into silly myth.”
The Apostle Peter said, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ for we were eyewitnesses to His majesty.” The message that Peter delivered in the first century is the message we deliver today. It’s the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the same message that has been delivered for two thousand years. This world is crazy and it’s getting crazier, but the message of Jesus Christ does not change. He is the hope of the world. He died. He rose in power. He is The Living One. He said, “Ego eimi Ho Zon.” “I Am The Living One.” And He offers resurrection and eternal life to all who believe in His name.
Perhaps you’re trying to fill the void today. Maybe you’re trying to fill the void in more acceptable ways. Maybe you’re trying to fill the void through career advancement or through monetary gain. Maybe you think if you could just make more money you would be satisfied and fulfilled. Maybe you think that if you could just find more free time for enjoyment you would have fulfillment. Maybe you’re single and you’re thinking if I could just find the right woman to be my wife, or if I could just find the right man to be my husband, I would find fulfillment. Or maybe you’re married, and you don’t have children and you’re just thinking, well, if we just had kids my life would have meaning and I’d find fulfillment. Or maybe you’re thinking if I just could find success, however you define success, I’d be happy. But none of these things can fill the void because we are spiritually dead, and we must be born anew. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.”
As we close this morning, we want to give you a chance to find the life that only Jesus Christ can give. We are dying, but He offers resurrection in a new physical body. We are spiritually dead, but He offers to make us alive through faith and connecting us to the Father, giving us eternal life. Let’s look to the Lord this Easter morning with a word of prayer.