SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/6/2015
8:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Its Compelling Urgency
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelations
1:3b-6
Message of the
verses: “for the time is near.”
When we look at these words we must realize that they go
along with what is taught in verse one where we see the word “soon.” There are two words for time in the
Scriptures and we have looked at this before in our study of 1 Thessalonians
where we read from 5:1 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have
no need of anything to be written to you.”
In the case of our section from Revelation 1:3b the word for time is the
Greek word kairos, and this refers to
epochs, and this is talking about the next great era of God’s redemptive
history that is near. No were does
Revelation tell us when all of these events will take place as far as what
year, but the prophetic events that are seen from chapters 4-22 are the next
events that are on God’s time table as far as the era of redemptive history.
We can look at Luke 12:35-40 which is a parable of Jesus
that will tell us that this is true, and also look at a verse in Titus to show
us that this has always been the “hope” of the church.
“35 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36
“Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding
feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and
knocks. 37 "Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the
alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve,
and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 “Whether
he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed
are those slaves. 39 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had
known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to
be broken into. 40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not
expect."” “Tit 2:13-looking
for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and
Savior, Christ Jesus.” Now remember that
the word “hope” in this verse is used as a noun, it is a sure thing and not as
a verb like “I hope the rain will stop.”
I have mentioned earlier that the apostles who wrote
letters in the Scriptures thought that they would be alive when the Lord
returned, and we know that that is our hope as believers today almost 2000
years later. We also that Peter wrote
that people will wonder and even make fun of those who believe that the Lord is
going to return: “3 Know this first of
all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following
after their own lusts, 4 and saying,
"Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell
asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’ (2 Peter
3:3-4).”
Its Trinitarian Benediction (Revelation 1:4-5a): 4 John to the seven churches that are in
Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before
His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
This greeting as far as grace and peace being included is
pretty much standard in many of the letters that are found in the NT
writings. Paul tells us the importance
of grace in Ephesians 2:8-9 where he writes “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.” We are all who are saved,
saved by grace through faith, faith in what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us
when He died on the cross to pay for our sins, as God had taken His holy wrath
out on His Son before His death on the cross.
Now we have seen that the first three verses were
actually John’s introduction to this letter, and not he is writing his
greeting, as I said it is similar to many other NT greetings stating the name
of who is writing at the beginning of the letter, and by the way this makes
much more sense that the way we write letters today, signing our names at the
end of the letters we write.
I have highlighted the three persons of the trinity in
this section but I want to quote what John MacArthur has to say about “the
seven Spirits who are before His throne,” as this “refers to the Holy
Spirit. Obviously, there is only one
Holy Spirit; the number seven depicts Him in His fullness (cf. 5:6; Isa. 11:2;
Zech. 4:1-10). The Holy Spirit I all His
glory and fullness sends grace and peace to believers: He is the spirit of
grace (Heb. 10:29) and produces peace in believers’ lives (Gal. 5:22). Here He is seen in the glory of His place in
the Father’s presence in heaven.”
I am kind of doing this in reverse but it is important to
understand how God the Father is described here from the phrase “Him who is and
who was and who is to come.” At first
glance one would think that this is a description of the Son, but it is the
Father. MacArthur writes that this description
“identifies the first Person of the Trinity, God the Father, described here in
anthropomorphic terms. Because it is the
only way we can understand the threefold description (cf. 1:8; 4:8) views of God
in time dimension (past, present, and future), although He is timeless. The eternal God is the source of all the
blessings of salvation, all grace, and all peace.” I know want to give a biblical definition of
the word “anthropomorphic.” “Anthropomorphism
comes from two Greek words: anthropos (man) and morphe (form).
Therefore, an anthropomorphism is when God appears to us or manifests Himself
to us in human form or even attributes to Himself human characteristics.
We see this all over the Bible -- and rightly so. After all, we cannot
ascend to where God is, but He can descend to where we are.”
We have
already learned that Jesus Christ is the theme of this book, and so John
describes Him last, and he describes Him in with three titles. The first is “faithful
witness, and this is one who always speaks and represents the truth. When we look at a court theme and in many
court themes there are witnesses, and these witnesses are suppose to tell the
truth, tell what they say or heard, and one of the attributes of Jesus Christ
is truth: “I am the way, the truth and
the life” (John 14:6.) Next we see Him
described as “the first born of the dead.”
MacArthur writes that this “does not mean He was chronologically the
first one to be raised from the dead. There
were resurrections before His in the Old Testament (1 Kings 17:17-23; 2 Kings
4:32-36; 13:20-21), and He Himself raised others during His earthly ministry…Prototokos does not mean firstborn in
time sequence, but rather first in preeminence.
Of all who have ever been or ever will be resurrected, He is the premier
one.” Now the third and last title of
Christ is “the ruler of the kings of the earth,” and this speaks of Christ’s
absolute sovereign over the affairs of the world, to which He holds the title
deed.” I once heard the following
statement about leadership: “A good
leader always realizes that he is second in control.” If our leaders in government today would
realize that Jesus Christ is the only true leader and that they were put there
because He wanted them there to bring about His plan then they would probably
lead better.
Its
Exalted Doxology (Revelation 1:5b-6): “To
Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood- 6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests
to His God and Father-to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
Amen.”
We truly
see the gospel message in the last part of verse five for God truly loved us
and released us from our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ as He died on
the cross. This was pictured in the Old
Testament right from when Adam and Eve committed the first sin as they
attempted to cover up their nakedness with leaves; God killed an animal to give
them clothes. I have to say at this
point that my belief is that they ended up with wool clothes as I believe that
God killed a lamb to cover them with. Jesus Christ was 100% human and that is
why He had blood and it was through His blood that we are saved from our sins
for Jesus willingly shed His blood to satisfy God’s payment for our sins. We get the word propitiation from this act,
and the Greeks used this word to describe “the satisfaction of an angry god,”
and thus God was satisfied with Christ offering for our sins and so He raised
Him from the dead.
John
MacArthur concludes his commentary with these words: “John concludes his doxology with the only
proper response in light of the magnitude of the blessings Christ has given
believers: “To Him be the glory and the
dominion forever and ever. Amen.” That is to be the response of all who read this
marvelous book in which that future glory and dominion is clearly presented.”
- Spiritual meaning for my life today: The words to the following song are my
steps of faith for today: I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.” - Refrain:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. - For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb. - And now complete in Him,
My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest. - Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone. - When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies. - And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength, and to believe and act like 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 For if these qualities
are yours and increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfaithful in the
true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “The golden rule.”
Today’s
Bible question: “What did Isaac tell
Jacob to do at Padan-Aram?”
Answer in
our next SD.
No comments:
Post a Comment