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 33rd 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
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