SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/4/2015 9:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: It’s Central
Theme
Bible Reading & Meditation Rev. 1:1b
Message of the
verse: As we look at the first six
verses of the first chapter of Revelations we will find that we will be looking
at ten more sub-points from these verses.
These verses represent the introduction to the book of Revelations and
so before we get into the second part of verse one I want to think about some
more things that will help us as we look at the introduction of
Revelations. Revelation is the last book
of the Bible and that is no surprise to anyone who has looked at a Bible, but
Revelation is the last words that God has for us in the entire Bible and so
perhaps it will be good for us to look at some of the things that began in the
book of Genesis that will be completed in the book of Revelation.
First of all we learn in
the book of Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth, and in the book
of Revelations we read that God will “un-create” the heavens and the
earth. (Again see 2 Peter 3:10-12). We also see that sin began in the book of
Genesis and it will end in the book of Revelation. Next we see that Satan is the one who brings
sinfulness to the world from the book of Genesis, but in the book of Revelation
we see that Satan will be put into the lake of fire forever. Genesis shows us the beginning of the curse
and Revelation shows us the end of the curse.
We see the tree of life that is relinquished in Genesis, but in
Revelations we see the tree regained. In
Genesis (3:15) we see a Savior promised and in Revelation we see the Savior
preeminent.
There are a couple of more
things that I want to go over before we look at verse 1:1b of Revelation. As I listen to and have read the book of
Revelation many, many times I notice in two places a promise given that gives a
blessing to those who read and those who heed what is written in this book, and
this is unique to Scripture. Next I see
the words “like” and “as” written many times in the book and so I want to do a
word search on these two words because they are both similes, words John uses
to describe things that perhaps he has difficulty in describing due to the fact
that he had never seen things like this before.
Like is used 45 times in Revelation and as is used 34 times. Next we want to look at the number seven and
how many times it is used in Revelation, for seven is the number of
completeness. I find that the number
seven is used 331 times in the book of Revelation. Next let us look at how many times the word
angel is used. Angel is used 50 times in
the book of Revelation. Next I want to
look up the words “blessed” and “blessing.” Blessed is used 3 times and
blessing is used 7 times and this shows that there are many blessings found in
the book of Revelation.
Jesus Christ is the central
theme in the book of Revelation for we see in the very first verse that this is
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” We
looked at the word “revelation” and what it meant in our last SD, but I want to
bring up one more point and that is because the word means revealing, that this
book should not be a closed book, but people who are believers should study
this book for as I said the one who does this receives a blessing. Now when we were studying the book of Daniel
we saw in the last chapter that Daniel was instructed to close up the book
until the time of the end, but now we see that the book of Revelation is not to
be closed up but to be read and studied for John goes on to say that the things
he writes about must soon take place, and we will get into the meaning of that
word “soon” in a later SD.
We not only see that this
book is a revelation from Jesus Christ but it is a revelation about Jesus
Christ and this makes it unique, as there are many unique things found in this
book. Other books in Scripture use the
same phrase “revelation of Jesus Christ” however the ones seen in the book of
Revelation are all about His majesty, power and glory, while the others spoke
of His humiliation, for that speaks of His first coming when His glory was
clothed in humanity.
The following is a rather
long quote from the former Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas Texas,
Dr. W. A. Criswell. 1/4/2015 9:36 AM 1/4/2015 6:18 PM
“The first time our Lord came into this world, He came in
the veil of our flesh. His deity was
covered over with His manhood. His
Godhead was hidden by His humanity. Just
once in a while did His deity shine through, as on the Mount of
Transfiguration, or as in His miraculous works.
But most of the time the glory, the majesty, the deity, the wonder and
the marvel of the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, were
veiled. These attributes were covered
over in flesh, in our humanity. He was
born in a stable, He grew up in poverty.
He knew what it was to hunger and to thirst. He was buffeted and beaten and bruised. He was crucified and raised up as a felon
before the scoffing gaze of the whole earth.
The last time that this world saw Jesus was when it saw Him hanging in
shame, misery and anguish upon the cross.
He later appeared to a few of His believing disciples, but the last time
that this unbelieving world ever saw Jesus was when it saw Him die as a malefactor,
as a criminal, crucified on a Roman cross.
That was a part of the plan of God, a part of the immeasurable,
illimitable grace and love of our Lord.
‘By His stripes we are healed.’
“But then is that all the world is ever to see of our
Savior—dying in shame on a cross?
No! It is also a part of the plan
of God that some day this unbelieving, this blaspheming, this godless world
shall see the Son of God in His full character, in glory, in majesty, in the
full character, in glory, in majesty, in the full-orbed wonder and marvel of
His Godhead. Then all men shall look
upon Him as He really is. They shall see
Him holding in His hands the title-deed to the Universe, holding in His hands
the authority of all creation in the universe above us, in the universe around
us, and in the universe beneath us; holding this world and its destiny in His
pierced and loving hands. (Expository Sermons on Revelation [Grand
Rapids; Zondervan, 1969], 1:16-17)”
The following is a list compiled by John MacArthur which
gives us a glimpse through the pages of Revelation as to why this book of
Revelation reveals that our Lord Jesus Christ is its main theme.
1 He is “the faith
witness” (1:5); 2 “the firstborn of the dead” (1:5); 3 “the Alpha and the
Omega” (1:8; 21:6); 4 the one “who is and who was and who is to come” (1:8); 5
“the Almighty” (1:8); 6 “the first and the last” (1:17); 7 “the living One”
(1:18) 8 “the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who
walks among the seven golden lampstands” (2:1); 9 “the One who has the sharp
two-edged sword” (2:12); 10 “the Son of God” (2:18); 11 the One “who has eyes
like a flame of fire, and…feet…like burnished bronze” (2:18); 12 the One “who
has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars” (3:1) 13 the One “who is
holy, who is true” (3:7); 14 the holder of “the key of David, who opens and no
one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens” (3:7); 15 “the Amen, the
faithful and true Witness” (3:14); 16 “the Beginning of the creation of God”
(3:14); 17 “the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah” (5:5); 18; the Lamb of
God (e.g., 5:6; 6:1; 7:9-10; 8:1; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7; 21:9;
22:1); 19 the “Lord, holy and true” (6:10); 20 the One who “is called Faithful
and True” (19:11); 21 “The Word of God” (19:13); 22 the “King of kings, and
Lord of lords” (19:16; 23 Christ (Messiah), ruling on earth with His glorified
saints (20:6); and 23 “Jesus…the root and the descendant of David, the bright
morning star” (22:16).”
Its Divine Source (Rev. 1:1c): “which God gave Him.
Now we come to a section in this very first verse of
Revelation that I don’t believe that I have ever thought about and that is “In
what sense is the book of Revelation a gift from the Father to Jesus
Christ?” Now there are some who believe
that this phrase is answered from what Jesus said in Mark 13:32 “"But of
that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but
the Father alone.” Now at the time when
Jesus spoke these words He was in His human body, and as we learned from what
W. A. Criswell writes that Jesus had set aside His attributes in order to
become a man and to die for our sins on the cross, so Jesus did not know the
answer to this question at the time He spoke this. However we can be assured that the way we see
Jesus Christ in chapter one He knew the answer to this question so we have to
look for another answer to this question. Let me add one more verse to show
that this possibility of answering this question this way is not a good
option: “John 17:5 “Now, Father, glorify
Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world
was.” Jesus is asking that He return to
the same glory He had before He became a man.
John MacArthur writes “In reality, the book of Revelation
is the Father’s gift to the Son in a far deeper, more marvelous sense. As a reward for His perfect, humble,
faithful, holy service, the Father promised to exalt the Son. Paul explains,
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. 9 For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10
so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Now we have already looked at Psalm 2: 7 "I
will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ’You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You. 8 ’Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as
Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ’You
shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like
earthenware.’"” I believe
that this too is a part of the answer to this question as to why the book of
Revelation is a gift to the Son from His Father.
Now when we look at Philippians 2:9-11, we will be able
to see this unfolding as we continue our study of the book of Revelation, we
will see God highly exalting His Son in the pages of the book of Revelation,
and this is truly going to be exciting to witness.
Its Prophetic Character (Rev. 1:1e): “the
things which must soon take place.
Anyone
who has even desired to look at the book of Revelation will soon realize that
this book is a book about what is going to happen as the world comes to an end,
however we will soon learn that this book is written to the church,
specifically seven churches, and that means that it is written to believers,
and believers have the Holy Spirit in them who will help them understand the
contents of this book. As we mentioned
Revelation means something concerning things before unknown, and that makes it
about prophecy. We have also seen in the
outline given in our last SD that chapters 4-22 are about future things, even
future to us, for we will now learn that the words “soon take place” means that
the events from chapters 4-22 are the next events on God’s prophetic
calendar. I promised to take a look at
this word “soon,” and I can tell you that after listen to John MacArthur’s
sermon a few times I am beginning to understand what this word “soon”
means. Now before we look at his
explanation of this word I want to give some more details as to why this book
is a prophetic book.
MacArthur writes “As in all prophetic literature, there
is a dual emphasis in the book of Revelation.
It portrays Jesus Christ in His future glory along with the blessedness
of the saints. It also depicts the
judgment of unbelievers in Jesus Christ leading to their eternal
damnation.” He now quotes Charles
Erdman: “This is a book of judgments and
of doom. The darker side of the picture
is never for a moment concealed. God is
just. Sin must be punished. Impenitence and rebellion issue in misery and
defeat. Here is no sentimental confusion
of right and wrong. Here is no weak
tolerance of evil. There is mention of ‘the Lamb that has been slain,’ but
also of ‘the wrath of the Lamb.’ There is a ‘river of water of life,’ but also a ‘lake of fire.’ Here is
revealed a God of love who is to dwell among men, to wipe away all tears, and
to abolish death and sorrow and pain; but first his enemies must be
subdued. Indeed, The Revelation is in
large measure a picture of the last great conflict between the forces of evil
and the power of God. The colors are
lurid and are borrowed from the convulsions of nature and from the scenes of
human history, with their battles and their carnage. The struggle is titanic. Countless hordes of demonic warriors rise in
opposition to him who is ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords.’ Upon them ‘woes’ are pronounced, ‘bowls’ of
wrath are poured out, and overwhelming destruction is visited. A brighter day is to come, but there is
thunder before the dawn. (The Revelation
of John [Philadelphia; Westminster, 1966], 12)
As I listened to MacArthur sermon on the word “soon” I
learned that there are different meanings to this word, quickness and speed are
two of them. We get the English word
“tachometer” from this Greek word, a devise that measures revelations per
minute from an engine in a car. What I
learned from the definition of this word is that this word actually speaks of
the next thing on the prophetic calendar, something I all ready mentioned. Peter writes that a day to God is a thousand
years on earth, and I think that when we look at when this book was written
that there have been nearly 2000 years past then that is only two days in
heaven. As we read Paul and Peter’s
writing we will see that they expected that the Lord would return while they
were still alive, and this gives us something else to think about, and that is
that when we look at what the Lord said to His disciples in Acts chapter one we
see these word: “6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying,
"Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7
He said to them, "It
is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own
authority.” Jesus is actually
saying that this is none of your business, in fact when Peter writes about this
in 2 Peter 3:10-12 he is actually saying that a thousand years is like a day to
the Lord he is trying to show his readers that it is important that they live
their lives to please the Lord “what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
(2 Peter 3:10b).” That is the
best I can do in explaining what this word “soon” means.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: “What sort of people ought you to
be in holy conduct and godliness.”
What sort of a person should I be?
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To love the Lord with all my heart,
soul, and strength, and also to believe that God loves me, and act like He
does, for He does.
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 yesterdays Bible
question: “Samaria” (John 4:3-4).
Today’s Bible
question: “The first time Joseph’s
brothers came to Egypt, which brother did not come?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/4/2015 7:57 PM
