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The Emotional Life of Jesus | How Our Ascended Savior Shepherds Our Emotional Life

March 30, 2025
Revelation 1:9-20

⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet ¹¹saying, “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.”

¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³and 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. ¹⁴The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶In 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.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, ¹⁸and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. ¹⁹Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. ²⁰As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

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Purpose

To discover and experience Jesus Christ in our midst

To cultivate mutually encouraging relationships

To participate in God’s mission to the world 

Opening Prayer

Almighty God, grant that we, who justly deserve to be punished for our sinful deeds, may mercifully be relieved by the comfort of your grace; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Responsive Prayer — Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

You discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

And are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

Behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

And lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there your hand shall lead me,

And your right hand shall hold me.

Summary and Connection

This week we’re shifting our focus from Jesus’ emotions to how he shepherds ours. In our main passage, John recounts how the ascended Jesus appears to him on Patmos. Jesus will later be referred to as “the Lamb” who is the Church’s shepherd (Revelation 7:17). As the early Church grappled with suffering and persecution, John’s visions in Revelation were meant to be an encouragement — Christ conquers sin and Satan, and his Church is to follow in his footsteps by persevering through suffering. Christ gives specific promises “to the one who conquers” in each of his letters to the seven churches (2:7,17, 26; 3:5,12, 21). In our study today, we’ll explore several passages that together paint a picture of Jesus as our ascendent, loving Shepherd.

Discussion Questions

1. Looking at the Bible

Observation: Read the passage privately. What does the text say? What is the theme of this passage? Do you notice any keywords?

• What does the passage say the seven lampstands represent? Is there significance to where the ascendent Jesus is standing in the vision?
  

2. Looking at Jesus

At Central we believe that all of Scripture points to Jesus. In other words, Jesus is the theological center of the Bible. Every passage not only points to Jesus, but the grand narrative of the Bible also finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus.

• Read Revelation 7:15-17 (text under "View Study Guide Notes"). What strikes you about how Jesus and his work are described in verse 17?
• What other passage(s) in the Bible can you think of that mention(s) Jesus as our shepherd? How do those texts describe Jesus’ shepherd role?

3. Looking at Our Hearts

• Think through some of your deeper fears — perhaps the loss of a loved one, humiliation because of exposed inadequacy, abandonment by those closest to you, or a loss of agency or health.
• How might knowing that Jesus is our powerful, loving, and ever-present shepherd change the way we respond to our fear? 

4. Looking at Our World

• What are some of the stories that the world tells itself in order to endure emotional suffering?
• How does a Christian’s account of suffering differ from the world’s?

Sending

• View Study Guide Notes

  Question 1: In his commentary on Revelation, G.K. Beale notes a connection between the Church and the image of the lampstand. The lampstand is an image drawn from the Old Testament temple, featured heavily in Zechariah. As a lampstand (rather than the lamp itself), the Church “is given power … primarily to witness as a light uncompromisingly to the world.” The Church’s power is not from itself but from the light it bears: the message of the gospel proclaimed through the Spirit’s power. Regarding verses 12-13, Beale points out that Jesus is seen in a priestly role, as Old Testament priests would “trim the lamps, remove the wick and old oil, refill the lamps with fresh oil, and relight those that had gone out.” Therefore, this risen Christ stands amidst the churches, "commending, correcting, exhorting, and warning” them so that the Church may continue to be worthy “lightbearers in a dark world.”

  Question 2:

  Revelation 7:15-17:

  ¹⁵“Therefore they* are before the throne of God,

          and serve him day and night in his temple;

          and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

  ¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

          the sun shall not strike them,

          nor any scorching heat.

  ¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

          and he will guide them to springs of living water,

          and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

  *Note: “They” in the passage refers to Christians who were “coming out of the great tribulation” and worshiping in God’s presence.

  In the Revelation 7 passage, Jesus is strikingly described as both a lamb and a shepherd. How could one of the sheep lead the flock? This could be an allusion to Jesus’ continued humanity, even after his resurrection. Earlier John describes a lamb that is standing before the Throne of God yet looks “as though it had been slain,” (Revelation 5:6). John’s Gospel recounts how Jesus showed the disciples the “mark of the nails” on his hands and the scar on his side (John 20:27). Jesus, as both fully God and fully man, leads the sheep as the “firstborn among many brothers,” (Romans 8:29).

  In Psalm 23, we see an intimate picture of God (and by extension Jesus) leading his people through the metaphor of shepherding. He provides for their material needs (verses 1-2), nurtures their spiritual health (verse 3), protects them from evil (verse 4), and honors them in the face of hostility (verse 5). This is not a picture of a detached God who watches passively from heaven and lets his people wander on their own. Rather, he is an involved creator who cares deeply for his people.

  In John 10:11-16, we see Jesus repeatedly refer to himself as “the Good Shepherd” (verses 11, 14). Jesus contrasts himself with the faithless hired hand to highlight his attentiveness, faithfulness, and sacrifice. The hired servant does not know the sheep and flees when they are endangered, but Jesus knows and cares for the sheep; he even lays down his life for them (verses 14-15). The sheep follow Jesus because they trust his voice (verse 15). In “Gentle and Lowly,” Dane Ortland reminds his readers that Jesus “never tires of sweeping us into his tender embrace … He doesn’t simply meet us in our place of need; he lives in our place of need.” Jesus, as our loving shepherd, provides for and guides us.

  Question 3: For Inc. Magazine, therapist Amy Morin compiled the top 10 fears that she found consistently crippled her patients. Her list included fears like change, loneliness, failure, rejection, uncertainty, and inadequacy. Each of these fears are real and should not be ignored nor suppressed. Yet, the author of Hebrews encourages Christians to “hold fast” because we have a High Priest who sympathizes with our suffering (Hebrews 4:14). Jesus did not shed his humanity when he was raised from the dead; he continues to intercede for us, still as fully human and fully God. The author of Hebrews continues, saying that Christ “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin,” and therefore we should “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

  Dane Ortland, commenting on Revelation 1:12-15, points out that the same Jesus is one “so unspeakably brilliant that his resplendence cannot adequately be captured with words, so ineffably magnificent that all language dies away before his splendor. This is the one whose deepest heart is, more than anything else, gentle and lowly.” Jesus is our ascendent savior who sympathetically shepherds our emotions.

  Question 4: The world has a variety of stories and/or strategies for coping with emotional pain. For a materialist, drugs, alcohol, sex, or any physical pleasure is the unquestionable choice for avoiding pain. For them, pain should be avoided at all costs. Following the nihilist path, pain becomes a context for self-creation. Seen most clearly in Fredrisch Nietzsche’s work, the idea is that suffering allows for us to become disciplined, self-sufficient people who no longer need fictitious religions to cope with pain. Finally, while positively acknowledging the spiritual realm, Buddhism teaches that its followers must let go of their attachment to a fixed, unchanging "self" (anatta) and recognize that everything is impermanence. According to this philosophy, suffering is merely an illusion.

  Christianity provides an alternative account. Christianity centers suffering as a core part of human life through Jesus’ death on the cross; however, suffering and death do not have the final say. Christ is victoriously raised from the dead and promises “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (John 10:18, John 20, Matthew 28:20). Finally, John’s visions in Revelation give Christians the metanarrative for earthly suffering: pain, suffering, and evil are real, but Christ is victorious in the end. Christ has defeated sin, death, and the devil (Revelation 18-20). He has rescued the Church and brought them to the New Heavens and the New Earth (Revelation 21). John hears a voice from heaven’s throne promising that “God will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4). Christians can have hope in suffering because they know that their victorious savior is also their loving shepherd. He promises to “wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).