TITLES OF CHRIST
THE MORNING STAR
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 22:12-16
MARCH 5, 1989
Fourteen years ago, on a Saturday morning at about 4:00 A.M., I decided to make a phone call to Dean Wolf. At that time, I was the Assistant Pastor at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. Dean was the Senior Pastor. Some of you knew him. Dean was not only my boss, but he was my friend, a kind of spiritual father to me. It was Dean who taught me to love the scriptures and to hide them in my heart. It might seem kind of strange that I would call Dean at 4:00 A.M. on a Saturday morning, but you see, I saw what I thought was a UFO and I knew Dean would want to know.
Just the day before on Friday, Dean had come up to me and he’d said, “Jim, have you thought much about UFOs?” And I said, “No.” He said, “Well, what do you think they really are? Do you think they’re imaginary? Do you think they’re visual distortions of natural phenomena? Do you think they’re genuine? Do you think they might be interterrestrial or extraterrestrial visitors and travelers? Or do you think they might be demonic manifestations, manifestations of fallen powers of darkness in the heavenlies?” I told Dean I didn’t know, but it was very obvious that Dean was very interested in UFOs, and he told me of some people who had allegedly seen UFOs and told him about them.
Well, you see, that Saturday morning Barb and I woke up about 3:00 A.M. This is when our home was out in Aurora and for some reason we couldn’t sleep. We looked out the window of our bedroom, which looked out to the east and we saw a bright light. Well, we’d never seen anything like that maybe because we’d never been awake at that time in the morning. But as we looked at it, it looked a little strange. So Barb went and got her binoculars and we tried to look at it more closely and it looked like various colors were kind of radiating from the light. As we looked at it, it looked like it was moving just a little bit. Slowly but surely. Certainly it was in a different place in the window than it had been before.
So we thought, you know, maybe this is a UFO and Dean would want to know. Even though it was 4:00 A.M. I called him, and I’ve got to say this turned out to be one of the more embarrassing moments of my life. I called him up and of course, woke him up. I explained the situation, said, “Dean, you might want to take a look to the east out your window.” Dean left the phone for a second. He came back laughing. He said, “Jim, congratulations. You’ve just identified the planet Venus.”
Now, I didn’t know a whole lot about Venus in those days. I don’t know a whole lot about Venus today. I do know that Venus is not a UFO. Venus is called the twin planet because it is believed to be a kind of twin of the planet Earth since it is the closest in size to earth and the closest in proximity. But of course, Venus isn’t really like Earth at all. Venus has no moon. It has no satellite. Venus has no life because, you see, the average temperature on the planet Venus is 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now in biblical times, the planet Venus was given two names. It was given the Greek name “Phosphorus” and “Eosphorus.” It was also given the Greek name “Próinos Astér.” Now these names mean respectively, “light bearer” and “early star,” but when translated into the English language, they both are generally translated by the words “morning star.” Strangely enough, in the Bible, these same two Greek words are used to describe Jesus Christ, “Phosphorus” and “Próinos Astér.” Jesus Christ is the Morning Star. There is a sense in which Jesus Christ is exactly like the planet Venus because you see, there’s a certain time of the year when if you look to the east in the morning, Venus is the last planet or star that can be seen in the early morning. It is the brightest star in the heavens. It is so bright that even after the dawn comes and the sun rises, you can still see the planet Venus. It’s called the morning star because it’s viewed as the star that ushers in the morning, the star that brings the dawning of the new day, the star that ushers in the new day.
Well, you see, Jesus is called the Morning Star because these same things are true of Him. Jesus Christ is the one who will usher in the dawning of the new day. He will usher in a new age. Now the Bible splits time into two periods, and these two periods biblically are called ‘this present age’ and ‘the age to come.’ This present age is called the age of darkness and the age to come is the age of light. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the Morning Star in the sense that He is the one who will usher in this age to come, this promised age of light.
This morning, as we take a look at the title Morning Star, we will really be examining the new age. I have two teachings. The first teaching concerns the question ‘when?’ When will the new age dawn?
I know you’ve all heard of the Aztecs. The Aztecs were, of course, an Indian nation that lived in Mexico centuries ago. The Aztecs worshiped a god that they called Quetzalcoatl. For the Aztecs, this god was the highest god and they believed that in their distant past, this deity had visited them. When the deity visited them, he was seen to have white skin. So, they sometimes referred to this god as Quetzalcoatl the white. Now, the Aztecs believed that this deity would one day come again to the world and when he came he would usher in a new age. He was a deity of great power and great kindness, and he would usher in the new age, an age of eternal peace and an age of eternal beauty.
Of course, in the year 1519, Hernán Cortés came to the east coast of Mexico, landed near what today is called Vera Cruz. He came with 11 ships with many men. He heard of the Aztec nation. He heard of their capitol, which was called Tenochtitlan, which today is called Mexico City, and Cortés decided that he would take his men to the Aztec capitol. He didn’t have nearly so many men as the Aztecs did and yet, strangely enough, the Aztecs did not resist him. In fact, they fell down before him and they worshiped him. When Cortés came to Mexico City, Montezuma II, who was the ruler of the Aztec people, also fell down and worshiped Hernán Cortés. He virtually handed over the Aztec Empire to this Spanish conqueror.
Today, many historians, most historians understand, they believe that this was done because Montezuma II and the Aztec people believed that Hernán Cortés was Quetzalcoatl the white and that he had returned to usher in the new age, an eternal age of peace, eternal age of beauty. Of course, it did not happen, but the Aztec myth concerning Quetzalcoatl is very similar to other ancient myths in other ancient cultures all over the world. You see, there is in the heart of man a weariness concerning this present age of the world. There is in the heart of man longing for a new age, a new age of eternal peace and eternal beauty, and the hope that somehow someone might come and usher in this new age. God has placed this hope in the human heart.
Have you ever looked at the back of a $1 bill? There you see the great seal of the United States and underneath the controversial pyramid it says “Novus ordo seclorum,” which means ‘A New Order of the Ages.’ There is hope that this country would usher in a new age for the world. But it has not happened.
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt promised what he called ‘The New Deal.’ In 1948, Harry Truman promised ‘The Fair Deal’ and in 1952 Dwight Eisenhower promised ‘The Great Crusade.’ In 1960, John Kennedy promised ‘The New Frontier.’ In 1964, Lyndon Johnson promised ‘The Great Society.’ The world longs for change. The world longs to be made new, but it has not happened. Today, of course, we have a movement that is called the New Age Movement, a group of people, some would say millions of people, who believe in hope that through monism and through pantheism and through religious humanism, through globalism and synergism and through alcoholism, somehow someway, they might usher in a new age. But it is a lie of Satan, a false hope for the purpose of deception. We should always understand that the name Lucifer is the exact equivalent in the Latin language of the Greek word “phosphorus,” or light bearer or morning star. Satan is a kind of counterfeit Christ and he offers a counterfeit hope. The Bible is very clear. This world has only one hope and that one hope is Jesus Christ and He is the only one who can usher in the new age, and He will do that when He comes again. The Bible makes that very clear.
Jesus Christ is no Quetzalcoatl, an imaginary mythological deity who never existed in history. Jesus Christ was historical. No historian would deny that. He lived, He died, and to the testimony of many eyewitnesses, He rose again and He will come again. The Bible says “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a cry of command when the archangels call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise, then we who are alive, who are left until His coming, shall be gathered together with them in the air to meet the Lord in the clouds. And we will always be with the Lord.” The Bible says that when He comes, “He will beat our swords into plow shares and our spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” He will usher in the new age.
Of course, many people want to know when is Jesus going to come again? Of course, through the Christian centuries, there have been Christians who have tried to set the date by way of prediction. That’s a mistake. Christopher Columbus made that mistake. Of course, everybody knows that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but very few people know that in the year 1501 Christopher Columbus wrote a book called The Book of Prophecies. In that book, he predicted the second coming of Jesus Christ and he set a date and he said Jesus Christ would come in the year 1656. He said in that year, this present age would end and the age to come would dawn and Jesus Christ would come back. Of course, it did not happen. He made a mistake.
Indeed, everyone makes a mistake when they try to predict the day or the hour. The Bible says no one knows the day or the hour. Of course, some Christians wonder if perhaps they can figure out the week or the month or the year, but the Bible is very clear that we can only know as Christians the season of His coming. In Matthew, Chapter 24, the disciples said to Jesus Christ, “When will you come again? What will be the signs of your coming?” Jesus Christ told them, “When you look at a fig tree and you see that its branches have become full of life and they’ve become tender and moist, and when you see that it’s beginning to bear leaves, you know that summer is drawing near. Even so, when you see certain signs happening, you will know that My coming is drawing near. You are approaching the season of my coming.”
Now in the Bible, many of these signs concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ are identified. We do not have time to review them. I will mention the three signs that most biblical scholars would say were the three primary signs of the second coming of Christ. The first has to do with the regathering of Israel. Israel will be reborn as a nation. It is prophesied in the minor and major prophets that the Jews scattered over the earth at the close of this present age, before the dawning of the new age, would become a nation again. They would reoccupy the city of Jerusalem. Of course, Israel became a nation in 1948. They reoccupied the city of Jerusalem miraculously in 1967.
Another prophetic sign concerns what the Bible calls the great apostacy. This is identified in 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2, and in many other passages. The Greek word is “apostacia.” The Bible tells us that just before the close of this age, in the dawning of the new age, before the second coming of Christ, there will be a great apostacy, a great falling away of many who claim to know Christ. Of course, this is finding fulfillment in mainline Protestant denominations as many people now deny the deity of Christ and the full authority and inspiration of the holy scriptures and the necessity of the new birth.
A third prophetic sign, of course, concerns the Antichrist. The Bible tells us that before the close of this age and the dawn of the new age, there will arise the Antichrist. The Bible says the Antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist is at work in our world already, diabolical and evil, but before the consummation, before the second coming of Christ, there will become an Antichrist alignment of nations and an individual empowered by Satan who will head up this alignment of nations and will seek power over every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Now there are, of course, many other signs. Some of these have been fulfilled in our time. Some have not yet perhaps been fulfilled. The Bible tells us that in the season of Christ’s coming there will be many doubters, many will scoff. The apostle Peter says, “Understand this, that in the last days there will come many scoffers and they will say, where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were to this day. But understand this, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. God is forbearing towards us. He is not slow about His promises as one would think or as some would think but He is not willing or wishing that any should perish.
Perhaps Jesus Christ will come in your lifetime. Perhaps He will come in mine. Perhaps not. We do not know, but this we know; He will come. He will come in power and great glory and He will usher in the new age. “Behold, I am coming soon. I am the root and offspring of David. I am the bright Morning Star.”
Well, the second teaching this morning, the final teaching, concerns the question ‘what?’ This is really the more important question. The most important question is not so much when will Jesus Christ usher in the new age, but the most important question is what will this new age be like? What is this new age really going to be like when it dawns? Jesus Christ says “Behold, I make all things new, for the former things have passed away.” When that new day dawns, what is Christ going to make new?
The Bible makes it very clear that there are four things He’s going to make new. First of all, the Bible says He’s going to make this earth new. You see, the Bible says nature itself has fallen. It says in Romans, Chapter 8, that even nature longs to be set free from its bondage to decay. The Bible says that in that new day, this earth will be made new. The plant kingdom, the animal kingdom will be perfected and we will have a new earth.
Scientists tell us that right now the deserts of our world are growing. The Sahara desert is growing south. The Gobi desert is growing east. The Arabian desert is growing north. Today more than one seventh of the land mass of the earth is desert. But you see, the Bible says there will come a day when the deserts will bring forth bloom and when fresh water will cover the parched places, and that day is called ‘the Day of the Lord.’ It is the age to come.
We’re told in Isaiah, Chapter 11, that the animals will be changed. It says “the wolf will dwell with the lamb. The leopard and the kid will lie down. The calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed. Their young shall lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The suckling child shall play over the hole of asp, which was a venomous snake. The weaning child shall place his hand in the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the oceans cover the sea.” A new earth.
Secondly, we’re told that when the new age dawns Christ will create a new man. You’re going to be made new. All of you who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Death will be no more. Neither will there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. We’re going to be given new resurrection bodies just like the resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’re told in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 15, that those bodies are going to be “epurinoy”, fit for the heavens. They’re going to be “aphthartos,” they’re going to be no longer subject to decay. They’re going to be indestructible. They’re going to be “dunamis,” powerful, “pneumotikos,” governed by the spirit and “doxa,” glorious new resurrection bodies.
The Bible says that in that day we will not only be made new with out but we will be made new within and we will be given new hearts and we will no longer have hearts of sin, but we will be without sin. We are given new minds and our minds will no longer be subjected to futility, a new man.
Thirdly, the Bible says that in the new age God will create a new city. And that new city is called a heavenly city, a celestial city, the new Jerusalem. You see, the old city of Jerusalem, in the Old Testament age, for the people of God was precious. The people of God came from throughout the Holy Land, from throughout the promised land on special occasions into the holy city of Jerusalem. They came to worship and they came to celebrate and they came for fellowship. Well, the Bible says that in the new day, in the new age, God will create a new Jerusalem, a heavenly one, a celestial one. It will be massive and it will be magnificent. It is described in Revelation, Chapter 21 & Chapter 22. We’re told that the people of God will bring their glory into that city and perhaps from throughout the creation on special occasions we will come there for worship and celebration and for fellowship.
Finally, the Bible tells us that in the new age, God will create a new heavens. We’re not only going to have a new earth, but we’re going to have a new heavens. “Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells, and you will rejoice and be glad in that which I create.” Well, apparently not only this earth needs to be made new, but the heavens themselves need to be made new. The Bible says that in the life to come, we will reign and rule with Christ. We who believe in Him will reign and rule with Him forever. And as in the beginning, man was first given dominion over the earth, so in that day, we will be given dominion through Christ over the whole creation, over the universe itself.
Now in the Bible, all of this is called the blessed hope and it’s meant to make you excited as Christians. You’re supposed to talk about it, supposed to be excited about it. And yet incredibly, many Christians are really not particularly excited about the age to come and the dawning of the new day. They’re really not that excited about the promise of heaven. Many Christians are really preoccupied with this present age.
A few weeks ago I was taking a drive with Drew and we drove through the Tech Center. Drew said, “Dad, what’s the millennium?” I was kind of surprised that Drew knew the word and he had an interest in the life to come so I began to explain to him a little bit about Isaiah 65 and 66 and Revelation Chapter 20. Drew said, “Dad, you don’t understand. I’m talking about the building.” Well you see, apparently in the Tech Center there’s a building called the Millennium. That’s what Drew was interested in. Drew is only 11 years old. He doesn’t really have much interest concerning the age to come and concerning heaven. At 11 years old, he really thinks his time in this present age is virtually endless, but you are adults and you know that the years we have in this world are all too few in number. I’m sure you want your years to count. You want the years that you have in this present age to be productive and you want them to be meaningful.
But the Bible is very clear, you’re never going to have a truly productive life in this age unless you really believe in the age to come. You’re never going to really live the life you’re meant to live now unless you really believe in heaven. You see, if you don’t really believe in heaven, you can’t possibly have the confidence you are meant to have in this world. Unless you believe in heaven, you can’t possibly have the joy you are meant to have in this life, the indestructible, unquenchable joy. Unless you believe in heaven, you can’t possibly have the power you are meant to manifest as a child of God in this age of the world. Unless you believe in heaven, you’re not going to…unless you really believe, you’re not going to be willing to take the risk that Christ wants you to take in this life. You’re not going to be willing to make the sacrifices that He wants you to make for His kingdom’s sake unless you really believe that eternity waits for you.
Sometimes it’s said that Christians are so heavenly minded that they’re of no earthly good. Personally, I’ve rarely found that to be the case. Most Christians are all too earthly minded and still of little earthly good. The Bible tells us that this present age is an age of darkness. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are called to minister in this age of darkness. We are called to bring some of the light of the age to come into this current age of darkness. You see, if you’re a Christian, there’s a sense in which for you, the Morning Star has already come. He’s already come into your heart and you’ve already tasted of the powers of the age to come. Through you, the age to come has literally invaded this age of the world, and you are now meant to share the love and the power of the age to come in this present age of darkness, but you can’t do that unless you’re really committed, unless you’re really believe.
You see, this last Tuesday at our staff meeting, and with this we’ll close…this last Tuesday as a staff we saw a movie which was entitled “A Man called Norman.” It’s produced by Focus on the Family and James Dobson. The movie tells about a Christian lay person whose name was Mike. He lived in Missouri about a hundred miles from the city of St. Louis. Mike moved with his wife into a new neighborhood, and across the street from his house there was an abandoned home. The windows were boarded up and the home was just totally falling apart. It was an absolutely horrible shape. It wasn’t very long before Mike realized that a man was living in that house, that abandoned house. That man’s name was Norman.
Norman was a tragedy. He was a social misfit. He had no personal hygiene. He never took a bath. He didn’t even know how to bathe. There was always an odor wherever Norman went. His clothes were rags. Norman was viewed as mentally ill. People thought of him as mentally deranged and perhaps mentally retarded. Most people thought that Norman was certainly very dangerous. People stayed away from Norman. They didn’t have anything to do with this guy. But every once in a while, Norman would run into a group of people and they would laugh or they would run, but he would throw his arms in the air and make strange noises. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with him.
Well, after a time, this Christian man whose name was Mike, he began to feel like Christ was saying to him, “I want you to reach out to Norman. I want you to love him in the midst of his darkness.” As you can imagine, Mike didn’t want to do that, but gradually, as the spirit of Christ led Mike, he began to talk a little bit to Norman and to show love towards him. He began to do little things for him. Finally, he invited Norman to come over to his house, have dinner, watch a little tv, and it was a very special night for Norman. Through that, Mike gained Norman’s trust. It wasn’t very long before Norman asked Mike to come to his house, that horrible house.
Mike didn’t want to go in there, and when he went in there, he couldn’t believe what he saw. The filth was beyond comprehension. Everything was dirty and everything was falling apart. Norman didn’t take care of anything, but the spirit of Christ told Mike what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to clean Norman’s house. In the days that followed, he got down on his knees and he just scrubbed all the filth from under toilets and under the sinks and cleaned Norman’s house. He became Norman’s friend and he took Norman with him to the baseball game in St. Louis, a Cardinal’s game. Norman had never seen anything like that. He’d never been out of the town.
There came a day when Mike knew that he had to clean Norman up physically. He washed Norman. Norman really didn’t even know how to clean himself. Mike scrubbed Norman’s face and cleaned off Norman’s face. For the first time, he could see the color of Norman’s hair. He taught Norman how to wash himself, and Mike bought Norman a whole new suit and new clothes. Mike took Norman to church. Nobody recognized Norman because he was like a new man. It wasn’t very long because before Norman did become a new man through the love and power of the age to come seen through Mike. Norman accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. At the very end of that movie, you see Mike and Norman walking down the road to get an ice cream cone, two friends, two Christians.
When the movie was done, you know, as a staff, a lot of us were kind of teary-eyed. I think we realized that we need to reach out to each other a little better. We need to reach out to you a little better and to this community. You see, there’s a lot of Normans in this world. Not simply physically, there are those, but emotionally and spiritually, a lot of Normans…people who are lonely and people who are emotionally damaged, people who are without hope and in total darkness and they desperately need somebody to come into their world and come alongside of them and be a little light in their darkness.
If you’re a Christian, Christ wants you to understand that. He hasn’t placed you in this world to be a spectator. He wants us to roll up our sleeves and get in the trenches. He’s called us into ministry. Jesus is the Morning Star. One day, this age of darkness will cease and He will usher in a new day, a wonderful day, and everything will be perfect. In the meantime, He’s called us to ministry. You see, one day, when that day comes, we will stand before Him and He wants to be able to say to you, “Come o blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was sick and imprisoned and you visited me. I was naked, and you clothed me.” He wants to be able to say to you, “Inasmuch as you’ve done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you’ve done it unto me.”
Christ is coming again. He’s the Morning Star. He says to us, “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine among man that they might see your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.” You see, that day is coming. The apostle Peter in 2 Peter, Chapter 1 tells us in the meantime, we are to be light in the darkness. We are to be a kind of oasis in the desert and a little bit of heaven on earth. We’re to do this until the day dawns, Peter says, and the Morning Star rises in our hearts. Let’s close with a word of prayer.