Introduction to the Churches

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2015 9:57 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction to the Churches

Bible Reading & Meditation                                        Reference:  Various Verses in Revelation

            Today’s SD will be a bit different in that I want to take some time to introduce what we will be looking at when we study these seven churches found in chapters two and three of the book of Revelation.  There are similar things that we will find when we study each of these churches.  First of all I want to talk about one thing that some people believe is true from the study of these churches and some do not agree with it, and that is that the churches are in prophetic order, and what I mean about this is that the dominant church in the world is in prophetic order as the churches that are listed.  The last time when I studied this book back in 2005 I wrote down the prophetic order of these churches and so I will do so in the introduction of our study of the churches and whoever reads this will have to make up their own mind as to whether or not they believe this is true.  Ephesus 33-100; Smyrna 100-312; Pergamos 312-590;  Thyatira 590-1517; Sardis 1517-1750; Philadelphia 1750-1925; Laodicea 1925-present time.  There are some ways that I think that the churches are in prophetic order, but even if this is true we do find each and every one of these types of churches that are around since John wrote this letter. 

            It is also good to be reminded that as we looked at the vision of Christ and what John saw in the first chapter of Revelation we saw that the churches were represented by the lampstands “"As for the mystery of the seven stars which 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’ (Rev. 1:20).” We saw the vision of the glorified Christ walking among the lampstands, which shows us what He has been doing since the church began.  This also shows us that churches are to be a light to the dark world in which we live in and as believers we are to show our light to those who live in this dark world, for that is the only light they will have.

            As we look at these churches we must also remember that these were seven physical churches that were there in Asia Minor, (modern day Turkey).  We will look at what the cities where these churches were located and so we can have a better idea of the problems that they all faced because of where they were located. 

            We will see as we go through these letters that each letter will contain a personal message for our Lord Jesus Christ.  There will also be messages to the individual believers within the church and an example of this is what Christ says to the church at Laodicea when He says that He is at the door knocking.  We will see as we read these letters that we have the opportunity to examine our spiritual status in the light of Jesus’ exhortations to these churches.  And as I said above there may be a prophetic lesson to learn from these churches as to where they fit into the history of the church.  We will also see that the things that we saw in John’s vision of the glorified Christ will be used to describe Him to the different churches.  For example as we look at Revelation 2:1 we read “"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:”  We saw in the vision of the glorified Christ that He was holding the seven stars in His right hand and He was the One who walks among the churches (the seven golden lampstands).  I believe that as we study these seven churches that we will see clearer what the Lord expects of us as believers and what He expects of the churches that we belong to.  Each church had its own particular set of issues and so as Christ looked at them He told them what He wanted them to do.

            There are two of the churches that Christ has no rebuke for, Smyrna and also Philadelphia, but as you read through the list of churches you will see that there is a downhill spiral in the spirituality of the churches with the exception of the church at Philadelphia.  When we come to the church at Laodicea we actually find Christ on the outside of the church knocking to get in.

            I mentioned in the first SD that I did this year of a sermon that was done by our “Seniors” Pastor at the very end of last year to help us to set some goals for this year of 2015.  We had a number of things to chose from and I chose my need to love the Lord in a better way this year and as we get to the first church, Ephesus the most famous verse in that letter is Christ telling them that they left their first love, so I believe that this is just another example of God speaking to my heart on the fact that I need to do a better job loving Him.  It seems that the people in Ephesus were running around doing things for the Lord, but did not stop to love Him.

            As we look at these seven churches over the next day’s my prayer is that we all will have a better idea of what it is that Christ wants to accomplish in our lives and then we will set out to do it.

1/16/2015 10:42 AM

The Effects of the Vision PT-1 (Rev. 1:17a-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/15/2015 8:45 AM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  The Effects of the Vision PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 1:17a-19

            Message of the verse:  In Today’s SD we begin the last section that goes along with chapter one, and as written above we will see what effects that this vision had on John, and what effects this vision should have on us as we study it.  Now it is important to remember that what John saw and wrote about when He saw the Glorified Jesus Christ was the Christ who is caring for the churches, His bride and we will see in chapters two and three the things from this vision that Christ will use when He speaks to the seven churches which represent all the churches from the time He told John of this until He comes to take His bride in the Rapture of the church as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  Jesus Christ is ministering in the churches each and every day, and He does this because He wants His bride to be clean and pure.

            Fear (Revelation 1:17a):  “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.”

            This is not the first time the glorified Christ has affected John in this way for a little more than six decades earlier on the Mt. of Transfiguration John, along with Peter and James were greatly affected seeing the resurrected Christ days before He would be crucified for our sins.  We can also look back at the books of Daniel and Ezekiel to see these two men fall as if they were dead when they too saw a glimpse of the glorified Christ. “Ezek. 1:28  As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.  Ezek. 3:23  So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face.”  “Dan 8:17 So he came near to where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face; but he said to me, "Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end."  Dan 10:9 But I heard the sound of his words; and as soon as I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground.”  Now let us look at what happened to Isaiah when he too saw the glorified Lord.  “Isa 6:5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."”  This same kind of thing happened to Samson’s father, Manoah and also to Job, and in the New Testament after the resurrection Saul of Tarsus, whom we know as the apostle Paul had a similar experience when he saw the glorified Christ on the road to Damascus, and it was during this experience that God called him to do his word for the cause of Christ. 

            Now let us focus on today and talk about people who have said that they have seen the Lord, but none of the things described in these verses have occurred to them.  The glory of the Lord is a bright light, a light that is brighter than the sun for after all God created the sun.  When Moses wanted to see the glory of the Lord God told him that it would kill him, but we read the following from the book of Exodus.  Now what I am about to write is from the 33^rd chapter of Exodus and this is when the Lord was not happy with the children of Israel because of what they had done when Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments so we kind of break in the middle of His conversation with the Lord.  Moses says to the Lord “"I pray You, show me Your glory!’(Exodus 33:18b).”  “19  And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." 20 But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" 21  Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; 22  and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen’ (Exodus 33:19-23).”  I truly have a difficult time reading about a person seeing the Lord after reading this section of Scripture along with the others above.  Remember when our Lord came into the world His glory was veiled in human flesh and we surely can be thankful that He came so that we who accept His forgiveness can be saved.

            Assurance (Revelation 1:17b-18):  “And He placed His right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.”

            Let us briefly look at Matthew 17:7 “And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, "Get up, and do not be afraid."”  This is exactly what Jesus did when they were all on the Mt. of Transfiguration, and I can’t help but believe that John remembered that, and I believe that this reassured John as it should us too for in that touch of the glorified Lord we see His great love for John and for us too.  Jesus tells John to “stop being afraid,” which according to John MacArthur is the literal translation of “do not be afraid.”  I searched these words “do not be afraid” for the entire NT and came up with seventeen times it is seen. 

            The reason that John should listen to the Lord is because of who He is for He goes on to say I am, and we will stop there for now.  Let us look back at Exodus again and see how the Lord answered Moses when Moses saw Him at the burning bush.  “God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ’I AM has sent me to you.’"”  Now what does this mean?  I Am speaks of the covenant name for God, a name which the Pharisees would not even pronounce fearing that they would be taking the name of the Lord in vain. 

            Next we see that Jesus says “the first and the last,” and we will compare this with Rev. 2:8 and also 22:13.  “"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:”  “"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."”  So we see this a total of three times in the book of Revelation.  When Jesus applied this title to Himself it is another proof of His deity.   These words also speak of the fact that Jesus Christ is the eternal God.

            Next we see the third title of Jesus in this section as being “the living One.”  Let us look at two verses in John’s gospel, John 1:4 and 14:6.  “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”  “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

            What we must see from this section is that the Jesus who brought fear to the heart of John, so much fear that he fell down as a dead man, is that it was the same Jesus who came to earth to die for his sins and who touched him and who comforted him.  Paul writes “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31)

            John MacArthur writes about the statement “I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more,”  “I became dead.”  He goes on to write: “The living One, the eternal, self-existent God who could never die, became man and died.  As Peter explains in 1 Peter 3:18, Christ was ‘put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.’  In His humanness He died without ceasing to live as God.”

            The next statement “Behold I am alive forevermore” begins with a statement of amazement as the word behold declares it.  Behold is a statement of amazement and wonder for Christ states that He is alive for evermore.  Christ lives forever n a union of glorified humanity and deity as we see from Hebrews 7:16b “according to the power of an indestructible life.”  It is so very important to know that Christ will never die again, and we know that Christ’s death and resurrection is a “firstfruits” of what will happen to those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior.  Paul writes about Him never dying again in Romans 6:9 “knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”  John MacArthur writes “In spite of his sinfulness in the presence of the glorious Lord of heaven, John had nothing to fear because that same Lord had paid by His death the penalty for John’s sins (and those of all who believe in Him) and risen to be his eternal advocate.”

            Now we get to the next part of the verses we are looking at which speak of keys, for Christ has the keys of death and of Hades.  One of the things that I like to do is to carry my keys with me, and if I don’t have them I feel lost.  I don’t know if others feel this way, but I do.  Jesus having the keys of death and Hades shows or denotes access and also authority.  MacArthur writes “Jesus Christ has the authority to decide who dies and who lives; He controls life and death.  And John, like all the redeemed, had nothing to fear, since Christ had already delivered him from death and Hades by His own death.”   Jesus stated that “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies…because I live, you will live also (John 11:25; 14:19).”  The part form chapter eleven of John was spoken to Martha and Mary who were about to see their brother resurrected from the dead.

            Duty (Revelation 1:19):  “"Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.’”

            As mentioned in an earlier SD this is the outline of the book of Revelation and it became a duty for John to write about the things which he had just seen, and then he was to write about the things which are, and by the way they still are, for this speaks of the seven churches, and then he was to write about the things which will take place after these things, in other words he is to write about the end of the world and it begins in Revelation chapter four and goes through the end of the book.

            John MacArthur finishes his commentary on this first chapter of Revelation with the following words:  “Like John, all Christians have a duty to pass on the truths they learn from the visions recorded in this book.  Those visions may at first be startling, disturbing, or fascinating.  But they, like all Scripture, are ‘inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteous; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work’ (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  As believers study the glory of Christ as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, [will be] transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).”

            Now as I have the privilege of studying this wonderful book again, a book that was the first book that I read after I became a believer in Jesus Christ I have the wonderful privilege of sharing with those who desire to read it as it is placed on my blog, and for that I am indeed thankful.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is comforting to remember that even though John saw great fear when he saw the Lord in all of His glory that His Lord gave great comfort to him, and He has promised to do the same for me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and strength, and to remember and live like He loves me.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:5-8.

5 Now for this very reason, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Twelve” (Luke 8:41-42).

Today’s Bible question:  “Complete the beatitude ‘Blessed are they that morn for they shall be…?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/15/2015 10:44 AM   

           

The Unfolding of the Vision PT-6-7 (Rev/ 1:16b-16c)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/14/2015 9:26 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  The Unfolding of the Vision PT-6-7

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Revelation 1:16b-16c

            Message of the verses:  Over the last few days we have been looking at the unfolding of the vision that John saw when he turned around looking for where the voice that he heard came from and what he saw was the risen Jesus Christ.  Now as we look at what he saw we will hear about it in chapters two and three when the risen Christ tells John what to write down for the seven churches that He has already mentioned.  The details of what He looks like will be used in what Christ has to say to the churches.  You see we are now living in the church age, and that began in Acts chapter two on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon those who were in the upper room waiting for something that they did not know would happen, but obeying the Lord Jesus Christ who told them to wait in Jerusalem for something to happen to them.  What happened to them was the giving of the Holy Spirit who is given to everyone who believes and is saved.  The church age will end at the Rapture of the Church something we discussed when we studied the forth chapter of 1 Thessalonians verses 13-18.  The vision of the Lord Jesus Christ shows what He is doing during this age of the Church.  When we get into chapters 4-22 we will see what He will be doing after the Church has been taken to heaven.  Now back to the last two parts of the vision.

             Christ Protects His Church (Revelation 1:16b):  “and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.”

            First we want to look at Revelation 19:15, 21 “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.  And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”  We can see from these two verses that the sword that comes out of the Lord Jesus Christ’s mouth is used to protect, and in the case of verse 16b it will be used to protect the external threats of the church.  However when we see this sword we can be assured that it will also be used to protect the evil that can raise up inside the church, and when we go through chapters two and three we will see some examples of this evil that came up inside some of those churches, and is coming up inside churches today.  There is a parable that Christ gave while on earth about the wheat and the tares that gives a little bit of an example of what we are talking about here in that there will grow up both wheat and tares and the tares will be difficult to discern from the wheat as there are times in churches when there are those who proclaim to be believers but are not and it is hard to tell that they are not.  MacArthur mentions two different verses on how this sword will work:  “12  For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:12-13).”  Next we will look at 2 Thessalonians 2:8 “Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.” MacArthur goes on to write “all the power of the forces of darkness, including death itself (the ‘gates of Hades’; Matt. 16:18), will be unable to prevent the Lord Jesus Christ from building His church.”

            Christ Reflects His Glory through His Church (Revelation 1:16b):  “and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.”

            “John’s vision of the glorified Lord of the church culminated in this description of the radiant glory evident on His face, which John could only describe as like the sun shining in its strength.  John borrowed that phrase from Judges 5:31, where it describes those who love the Lord (cf. Matt. 13:43).  The glory of God through the Lord Jesus Christ shines in and through His church, reflecting His glory to the world (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6).  And the result is that He is glorified (Eph. 3:21).”  These are the words found in John MacArthur’s commentary for this section of Revelation.  I want to now give the references in the order found in this quote.

“"Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD; But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might." And the land was undisturbed for forty years.”

"Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

“For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

“to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is truly my desire to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ in my life is what I can see that I want to do from this section of Scripture.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and strength, and to realize in my heart and mind that He loves me and then act like He loves me.

Memory verses for the week:  2Peter 1:5-8.

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Three times” (2 Kings 13:18).

Today’ Bible question:  “How old was Jairus’ daughter?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/14/2015 10:07 AM

"The Unfolding of the Vision PT-4-5" (Rev. 1:15b, 16a, 20a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/13/2015 1:59 PM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  The Unfolding of the Vision PT-4-5

Bible Reading & Meditation                                    Reference:  Revelation 1:15b, 16a, 20a

            Message of the verses:  We will first look at Revelation 1:15a in our study for today.

            Christs Speaks Authoritatively To His Church: (Revelation 1:15a):  “and his voice was like the sound of many waters.”

            Notice we have that word “like” in this section as perhaps John had a difficult time truly explaining what he heard.  When we heard Christ speak in verse ten it was like the sound of a trumpet.  The sound of many waters could mean like the waves crashing into the seashore, or perhaps even a waterfalls.  When one goes to visit Nigeria Falls they will never forget the sound that the falls make especially if you go on one of the boat rides that goes close to the bottom of the falls.  The voice that John heard was a voice of sovereign power showing once again that Christ is God.  This same voice will one fulfill the following words:  “28  "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29  and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29).”

            When Christ speaks to His church we must listen.  Remember what the Father said when Christ was on the Mt. of Transfiguration:  “This is My beloved Son,…listen to Him!” (Matt. 17:5).  One more verse to look at and that is Hebrews 1:1-2 “1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2  in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”

            Christ Controls His Church (Revelation 1:16a, 20a):  “In His right hand He held seven stars…the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.”

            In the book of Ephesians we learn that Christ is the head of the church:  “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ (Eph. 4:15.”  “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body (5:23).”  Next is Col. 1:18 “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”  We notice as John speaks of the vision of Christ he tells us that the seven stars, which represent the 7 churches is in the right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, and being in His right hand it represents control.

            I want to, at this time quote from my commentary that I wrote on this section on Feb. 8 2005 to help us to see what the word ‘angels” means.  “Jesus says that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the word means messengers, which is the word that is used for angels many times in the Bible.  Some think it refers to the Pastors or Ministers, but it certainly could mean that God has appointed an angel over each of His Churches.”  I hope this helps.

            My opinion of this is that they are not angels, but they are the leaders of the churches.  Let me explain one of the reasons why I believe that this word is speaking of the physical leaders of these seven churches.  When Christ died on the cross and was resurrected from the grace He gave authority to His disciples, and in the second chapter of Acts, on the Day of Pentecost we see the church begin.  As we work our way through the book of Acts we see the Holy Spirit moving in the lives of the apostles, especially Peter and then Paul to establish the churches.  Once these men died there were never any more apostles, but what we see in the book of Acts and also in Paul’s letters that he appoints different men, Elders, Pastors, deacons to lead the new local churches and the seven churches in Revelation are a part of those local churches.  God’s way of having His Word taught in His churches is through the leaders of those churches and I do not believe that there are angels who are the heads of any local church today or when the church began.  I am not saying that in the spiritual realm that there are not angels to help protect different churches, for this is most probably the case, but not teaching the churches.

            Spiritual meaning form my life today:  One of the things that I want to make sure of when I join a church or even visit a church is that the Pastor of that church has been called by God and can tell me when it was that he was called by God.  In this way I can believe that the messages that he is giving are from the Lord, for if he were not called then that would not be the case.  I am thankful that all of our Pastors in our church have been called by the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and strength, and to live like I know that He loves me.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:5-8.

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Acts.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How many times did Joash smite the arrows to the ground?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/13/2015 2:43 PM

    

The Unfolding of the Vision PT-2 and 3 (Rev. 1:13b-15a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/12/2015 12:51 PM

My Worship Time                                               Focus:  The Unfolding of the Vision PT-2 and 3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 1:13b-15a

            Message of the verses:  We will be looking at the second aspect of this main point, “The Unfolding of the Vision and this is entitled “Christ Intercedes For His Church.”

            “Clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash (Rev. 1:13b).”

            John first noticed the robe that Christ was wearing and as we search through the Scriptures we will find that those who were kings, priests and prophets wore a similar robe.  We can remember that Jesus Christ is prophet, priest and king as He holds all three of these positions.  Now speaking of priests I believe that I forgot to mention that all believers are priests according to Revelation 1:6.  What does a priest do?  They intercede to God on behalf of others and according to this sub-title that is what Jesus does.  Why would He have to do this?  I think that when we look back at the book of Job we can see that Satan came into the presence of God to accuse people before God, and we can be sure that he does this today and when he accuses the brethren before God, so Jesus will then intercede for them because Jesus paid it all and therefore Satan cannot accuse us before the Lord because all the Lord sees is the righteousness of Jesus Christ and not our sins for He paid for them on the cross. 

            The next thing John sees is the golden sash which is across the chest of Christ.  We can remember from our study of Exodus that the High Priest wore one similar with twelve stones on it which represented the twelve tribes of Israel, as he kept them close to his heart to intercede for them. 

            On another part of the blog that I write I am putting SD’s which began in December of 2002 on my study that I did on the book of Hebrews and one of the themes that is woven through Hebrews is the fact that Jesus Christ is our High Priest:  “17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:17-18).”  Propitiation means that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice satisfied God, and we also see that Jesus Christ is not only God, but also man as the text says “He had to be made like His brethren in all things.”  We also see that He was tempted in all things.  Now I want to make it clear that Jesus Christ could not sin, it was impossible for Him to sin because He is God, however think about how difficult it is not to succumb to a temptation, perhaps a temptation that goes on day after day.  This is what our Savior had to do while He was on planet earth as Satan tempted Him along with other demons, and yet He never sinned.

            Christ Purifies His Church (Revelation 1:14-15a):  “14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace.” 

            John first describes His clothing and now he moves on to describe His person in verses 14-15.  “The first few features depict Christ’s work of chastening and purifying His church.”

            One of the very first attributes that I looked at when studying the attributes of God is that God is holy, and holiness is perfection, something that God alone is, and yet He wants His church to be holy.  This is the purpose for Christ purifying His church, to make them holy.  One of the words that describe the church is that we are the “bride” of Christ, and this is a very good reason for Christ to want us to be holy, and of course the fact that He died for the church is another reason He wants to make her holy.  “Christ...loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26  so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27  that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-27).”

            How does Christ maintain the holiness of His church?  We first saw this in the book of Matthew and chapter 18:15-17 “"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16  "But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  This speaks of the disciplining of those sinful believers who are in the church.  Paul also writes to the Corinthians about this too. 

            John MacArthur writes the following about Christ’s head and hair as being white like white wool, like snow “is an obvious reference to Daniel 7:9, where similar language describes the Ancient of Days (God the Father).  The parallel descriptions affirm Christ’s deity; He possesses the same attribute of knowledge and wisdom as the Father.  White translates leukos, which has the connotation of ‘bright,’ ‘blazing,’ or ‘brilliant.’  It symbolizes Christ’s eternal, glorious, holy truthfulness.”

            Next we see his eyes like flaming fire which means that He can penetrate all things in the church to see how the church is living up to the things they are suppose to be doing for the cause of Christ.  “for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known (Matthew 10:26b).”  “12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12-13).”  These eyes speak of Christ’s all knowing and all seeing which is a part of His attributes.

            We now move to His feet which were “like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace.”   I have mentioned that I worked in a foundry for close to 35 years and we melted an average of 300 tons of cast iron five days a week and so I had the opportunity of looking at molten iron and have an idea of what John is speaking of in this section.  One day in the foundry a man threw a gun into a furnace where the iron was not molten and the gun just glowed, similar to what we see in this passage.  Bronze was what the altar was made of in first the tabernacle and then the temple, and that had to do with sin, and that is what Christ is moving through the church to see.  “You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10  For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness Hebrews 12:5-10).” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I, like most people do not enjoy being disciplined by the Lord, but that is the only way for me to grow in my faith and obedience of the Lord, so from time to time it is necessary for all believers to experience His discipline.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and strength, and remember and experience the love He has for me, to just believe that He loves me so very much.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:5-8.

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfaithful to the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Amram” (Exodus 6:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which book tells of the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/12/2015 1:57 PM

The Unfolding of the Vision PT-1 (Rev. 1:12-13a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/11/2015 8:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  The Unfolding of the Vision PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                    Reference:  Revelation 1:12-13a

            Message of the verses:  As we begin to unfold this vision we will be following the outline that is in the commentary that John MacArthur has written on Revelation and before we jump into what this vision means I want to quote his introductory comments on this vision found in Revelation 1:12-16, 20.  He writes “Having described the circumstances in which he received it, John then related the vision itself.  The revealing and richly instructive look at the present work of the glorified Son of God discloses seven aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ’s constant ministry to His church:  He empowers, intercedes for, purifies, speaks authoritatively to, controls, protects, and reflects His glory through His church.” 

            Christ Empowers His Church (Revelation 1:12-13a; 20b):  “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.  And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man…the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

            I have mentioned that right after I was born-again in January of 1974 that I was extremely interested in prophecy, mostly how the world would end and so only days after I was saved I read through the book of Revelation, and as you can imagine I did not understand a lot about what I was reading, but one thing happened that has become a wonderful habit to me and that is I still read God’s Word each day, and I love reading from the book of Revelation.  I have probably read or listened to the book of Revelation more than any other book in the Bible and when you do that you kind of get meanings of certain passages that you are reading, you fix meanings to them and that is the case of some of these verses that we are looking at today.  For instance I thought that the golden lampstands were like the one that were used in the tabernacle or the temple, but John MacArthur says that these were the kind of lamps that were used to light up a room, but these were made of gold, the most precious metal on earth.  We know that the church is suppose to be the light of the world and we only use lamps or in our case lights to light up a room when it is dark which symbolizes that the world is a very dark place and that the church is to light it up so that they can see.  Paul writes in Philippians 2:15 “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”  The lampstands were the first thing that John saw when he turned around facing the voice that he had heard. 

            MacArthur writes “The church is to God the most beautiful and valuable entity on earth—so valuable that Jesus was willing to purchase it with His own blood (Acts 20:28).  Seven is the number of completeness (cf. Ex. 25:31-40; Zech. 4:2); thus, the seven churches symbolize the churches in general.  These were actual churches in real places, but are symbolic of the kinds of churches that exist through all of church history.”  Perhaps this is a good time to talk about something that I have learned many years ago about these seven churches and that is that there are some who believe that these churches are prophetically in order of the dominant church throughout church history.  For instance those who believe this believe that the dominant church in the time we are now living in is the church at Laodicea, but they are careful to say that there are all of the types of the churches we see here in parts of the world today, but the dominant one today would be the last one, Laodicea.  I am not sure if I go along with this or not, but just though that this would be a good time to mention it.

            Next we look at the section that reads “In the middle of the lampstands” John “saw one like a son of man.”  First we will look at Daniel 7:13 “"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.”  This title is used some 90 times in the book of Ezekiel, and also here in Daniel and Jesus used this to speak of Himself on many occasions too so we know that this is a Messianic title.  We see the Lord Jesus in His glorified state moving among the churches and this is something that He promised He would do.  Matthew 28:20 tells us “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Let us look at Matthew 18:20 “"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."” This statement comes at the end of a section where we see how church discipline is to be used and so this tells us that Christ is with His church in the difficult times when there is sin in the church.  Next we look at John 14:18 and 23 “"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”  “"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”  Next Hebrews 13:5b says “"I will never leave you nor forsake you."” 

            Let us end with another quote from John MacArthur “Christians do not worship a well-meaning martyr, a dead heroic religious leader.  The living Christ indwells His church to lead and to empower it.  Believers personally and collectively have the inestimable privilege of drawing on that power through continual communion with Him.  Paul wrote of the Lord’s Supper, ‘Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?  Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?’ (1 Cor. 10:16).  The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in His church empowers it, enabling believers to say triumphantly with the apostle Paul, ‘I can do all things through Him who strengthens me’ (Phil. 4:13).”  This is truly a new and wonderful way for me to look at these verses in the book of Revelation.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to remember and live like the Lord Jesus Christ is walking among His church, and He is there to empower it, and continue to pray that He will empower it as He has promised us. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, mind, and strength, and to believe and live like He loves me.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:5-8.

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6  and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7  and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Judah” (2 Kings 16:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “What Old Testament saint married his father’s sister?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/11/2015 9:35 AM

"The Setting of John’s Vision" (Rev. 1:9-11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/10/2015 11:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Setting of John’s Vision

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 1:9-11

            Message of the verses:  I think that I mentioned that there are a total of 404 verses in the entire book of Revelation, and we are not on the tenth day looking at the marvelous book and hopefully we will finish the first eleven verses of chapter one.  It is very important to understand this first chapter so that we can then build upon what we have learned from it as we progress through the book.  Now the rest of this chapter verses 9-20 speak of the vision that John has, and this vision really begins the book as the first part was John’s introduction to this book.  John MacArthur entitles his chapter on these verses “The Vision of the Glorified Son,” and I am hoping that we will be able to finish these twelve verses by the end of next week, as there are many important things in them that we must learn before we proceed into chapters 2-3 which speak of the seven churches that this book originally went to.

            Before we begin looking at these verses let’s take a brief look at the history of the Church up until the time when John received this vision so that we can set up why it was so important that he got this vision at the time that he got it.  In the 21^st chapter of John which takes place after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but before He ascended into heaven we have a scene that takes place at the Sea of Galilee where we see several of our Lord’s disciples fishing all night but catching nothing.  They see a “man” on the beach who asks them if they had caught anything which they reply no, so He tells them to fish on the other side of the boat to which they caught so many fish that their boat began to sink.  John tells Peter it is the Lord and so Peter jumps in the water to talk to Jesus, which was one of the purposes of this visit to them.  We see in this section that Jesus restores Peter from the sin of denying Jesus three times and then He tells Peter how his death will glorify Him to which Peter asks Jesus how John would die.  Jesus in essences tells him that was none of his business and if He wanted John to live until He returned that was up to Him.  Now why do I bring this up?  Several reasons, first of all when we look at the history of the church from the time it began in Acts chapter two up until around 64-65 AD we see that both Paul and Peter were martyred for the cause of Christ, but John was still alive, just as Jesus had said, and we can believe that the reason John was still alive was to receive the vision that we are studying, the book of Revelation. 

            When the church began most people thought it was a sect of Judaism, but after the Jews began to persecute the church that theory went out the window.  Most of the people in the Roman Empire worshiped idols, and there came a point when all people were to offer sacrifices to the emperors of the Roman Empire, something that the Christians could not do, and so many were killed.  Nero blamed the church for the fire that burned in Rome on July 19^th AD 64 and so the tribulation of the believers began from the Romans.  The next emperor who caused so much trouble for the church was Domitian and this brings us to the time when John’s tribulation for the cause of Christ comes along.  We will see more of this when we begin to look at the verses.  God is never in a hurry, but God is never late is a saying that is true and you can look at the life of Jesus while on earth to see that that statement is correct.  The church needed to be lifted up by the Lord at this time in its history and that is one of the reasons for the timing of this book that comes from a vision given to John, as John did as he was told and sent it to the seven churches and thus it spread further after they got this book until we who own a Bible have a copy of it too.

            I used a quote from a book that I am reading, written by Warren Wiersbe in our last SD, and I want to use that book to give another quote today.  One may wonder what those who are not true believers many times do not like those who are and as we have taken a very brief look at the persecution of the church in the early part of it today this question is worth asking and hopefully this quote I give will help us understand it.  “Satan is ‘the ruler of this world,’ and you and I are rebellious aliens living in his territory.  Because we are citizens of heaven, we obey heaven’s laws and submit to heaven’s Lord.  Satan wants us to worship and serve him; he wants our will submitted to his will.”  The title of the book from where this quote came from is “The Strategy of Satan” and the chapter it is quoted from is about the will of the believer. 

            As we look at these verses we are going to see the humility of John and this got me to thinking about humility, something that, at times, is difficult for us as believers to have because we have been given so much from our Lord.  Our example is that of Jesus Christ and the text that shows this greatly is Philippians 2:5-8 “5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  There is our example to follow, so let us think about this for a moment as we look back at the quote from Warren Wiersbe.  We, those who are true believers, were once in the same place as unbelievers, we were ruled by the ruler of this world system, that is Satan, but then one day the Holy Spirit of God gave us an offer we could not refuse and we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord and we were changed.  This was a free gift to us and Paul writes all things in 2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  This was a free gift from the Lord, something we could never earn if we worked for it for a million years.  What do we as believers have to be proud about as if we did something to receive eternal life on our own?  “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  This comes from Ephesians 2:8-9.  When we look at the life of the apostle John we see that in his gospel he did not even use his name one time, and only in one of the letters he wrote and this shows us a picture of his humility.  Now in the book of Revelation we do see his name and that is probably due to the fact that he could not figure out why he was so blessed to see what he was seeing as we see “I, John” in many of the places we see his name mentioned, not all, but many.

            The following is a quote from the end of John MacArthur’s introduction to the chapter in his commentary that verses 9-20 come from:  “the vision of Jesus Christ that begins the book does not describe Jesus in His future glory, but depicts Him in the present as the glorified Lord of the church.  In spite of all the disappointments, the Lord had not abandoned His church or His promises.  This powerful vision of Christ’s present ministry to them must have provided great hope and comfort to the wondering and suffering churches to whom John wrote.  Verses 9-20 provide the setting for the vision, unfold the vision itself, and relate its effects.”  I find the highlighted portion of this quote very interesting.

            This was the introduction and now we will look at the verses.

            “9 I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, 11  saying, "Write in a book what you see, 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."

            Part of John’s humility comes up as we look at “your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus,” after all John was one of the three that were in the inner circle of Jesus’ ministry while on earth.  Peter says something similar “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:” And when we look at Jude and also James who were the half brothers of Jesus we don’t see them bragging about this at all.  We see from these verses that John suffered just like the rest of those who he is writing to at this time, and this is the reason that we find John on the island of Patmos, a rock small island “located some forty miles offshore from Miletus (a city in Asia Minor about thirty miles south of Ephesus; cf. Acts 20:15-17).”  There was a prison there and John was there because he was a criminal because of his belief in Jesus Christ which is what the text tells us. 

            Now we look at the statement “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” and perhaps this becomes a mystery to us.  John MacArthur writes “his experience transcended the bounds of normal human apprehension.  Under the Holy Spirit’s control, John was transported to a plane of experience and perception beyond that of the human senses.  In that state, God supernaturally revealed things to him.”  I am studying the book of Ezekiel along with studying Revelation and in the first and third chapters of Ezekiel we see that this same thing happened to Ezekiel.  Daniel also had this happen to him. 

            Now some believe that the word’s Lord ’s Day means the day of the Lord, but this is not true because of the words that are in the original Greek.  We have looked at that phrase “day of the Lord when we were studying 2 Thessalonians and found out that the ultimate meaning of that means what we will be looking at as we continue on in the book of Revelation, especially the parts that describe the last three and a half years of the tribulation and also the last battle, for this will be the time when the wrath of the Lord will come upon those who reject His offer of salvation and continue to sin.  The phrase “Lord’s day” means Sunday, for that is the day that the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.

            Now when we continue to look at verse ten we see that John heard a voice and he describes it as being loud and like a trumpet.  Let us look at Ezekiel 3:12 “Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, "Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His place."”  The voice that John heard was the same voice that Ezekiel heard, that of the Lord Jesus Christ.  MacArthur writes “Throughout the book of Revelation, a loud voice or sound indicates the solemnity of what is about to be revealed (cf. 5:2, 12; 6:10; 7:2, 10-8:13; 10:3; 11:12, 15; 12:10; 14:2, 15, 18; 16:1, 17; 19:1, 17; 21:3).”  Similar was what happened when the Lord gave the Law as described in Exodus 19:16 “So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.”

            This voice of whom we have already identified as the voice of Jesus Christ told John to write in a book “what you see.”  MacArthur writes “This is the first of twelve commands in the book of Revelation for John to write what he say (cf. v 19; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; 14:13; 19:9; 21:5); on one other occasion he was forbidden to write (10:4).”

            Next we see to who John is to send this letter to and then he gives the names of the churches.  One more quote from MacArthur and we will be done with the part of the SD.  These seven churches were chosen because they were located in key cities of the seven postal districts into which Asia was divided.  They were thus the central points for disseminating information.

            “The seven cities appear in the order that a messenger, traveling on the great circular road that linked them would visit them.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I guess getting your toes stepped on is a good thing when you are reading the Word of God, and the little lesson on humility was important for me to listen to and to write.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and strength, and to believe that the Lord loves me.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Peter 1:5-8.

5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  8 Now if these qualities are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Joseph” (Genesis 37:9).

Today’s Bible question:  “Of what country was Jotham king?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/10/2015 1:08 PM