Everyone likes Christmas, the First Advent, and there’s something appealing about the baby in the manger. Indeed, there’s a message there about humility and poverty. Jesus came among, and related to, ordinary people.

But the Bible is clear that Jesus is no longer a baby in a manger; he’s no longer “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” John is clear about what Jesus looks like today:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. (Revelation 1.10 – 17, ESV)

John, who knew him well, fainted dead away when he saw Jesus. Wouldn’t you?

• His voice was like a trumpet (that’s loud!)
• He was clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.  
• The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. 
• His eyes were like a flame of fire,
• His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. 
• His voice was like the roar of many waters.
• In his right hand he held seven stars, 
• From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.
• His face was like the sun shining in full strength.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22.20, ESV)