SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/5/2015
10:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Revelation’s Supernatural Delivery
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev. 1:1f-3a
Message of the
verses: We are in the midst of
looking at eleven different characteristics of this book which come from the
first six verses of chapter one. Today
we will begin sixth characteristic and see how far we can go today.
Revelation’s Supernatural Delivery (Rev. 1:1f): “and sent and communicated it by His angel.
In yesterday’s SD we looked at how many times angels are
mentioned in the book of Revelation and mentioned that one fourth of the times
angels are mentioned in the Bible are seen in the book of Revelations. In the Old Testament we saw that it was
angels who were used in giving the Law of Moses (Acts 7:53 “you who received
the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it."), but the book of
Revelation is the only book that was “sent and communicated” by an angel, the
Lord’s angel. Now at the end of the book
we see that Jesus reaffirmed this by saying in Rev. 22:16 “"I, Jesus, have
sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root
and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."” In one of his sermons on this section of
Revelation John MacArthur stated that in studying the book of Revelation we
will learn much about angels, and as far as I am concerned that is something
that I am looking forward to. Angels do
appear in every chapter of the book with the exception of chapters 4 and 13, so
we will see much about them.
Revelation’s Human Author (Rev. 1:g-2): “to His bond-servant John, who testified to
the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.”
The Apostle John has written much of the New Testament as
He has written the gospel of John, 1, 2, and 3 John, and also the book of
Revelation. We see here that John is a
bond-servant of Jesus Christ and this means that John was a slave of Jesus
Christ. One of the meanings of this
title “bond-servant” from my English/Greek dictionary is “metaph., one who
gives himself up to another’s will, those whose service is used by Christ in
extending and advancing his cause among men.”
Those who were classified as being a bond-servant of Jesus Christ lived
their lives to serve Him and to complete His will through their service to
Him. Another note on John is that he did
not even mention that he wrote the other books that he wrote that are recorded
in the Word of God.
John MacArthur writes “The enormity of the visions John
received on that barren island staggered him.
Throughout his gospel, John never directly referred to himself. Yet here he bookends his vision with the
statement ‘I, John’ (1:9; 22:8)—an exclamation that expressed his amazement
that He was receiving such overwhelming visions.”
When we read through the Gospel of John we see that John
loyally testified of the first coming of Jesus Christ and now in the book of
Revelation he will do the same for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as He sees
all of this through the vision of “what must take place,” and that is the testimony
about the coming glory of Jesus Christ
Revelation’s Promised Blessing (Revelation 1:3a): “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear
the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it.”
We see another unique characteristic of the book of
Revelation as we look at this portion of verse three from chapter one and also
we look at verse 22:7 which reads “"And behold, I am coming quickly.
Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book."” Now when we read what is called the “beatitudes
from the Gospel of Matthew we see something similar, but this blessing is for
the entire book of Revelation.
John MacArthur writes “But those are only two of seven
promises of blessing the book contains, the rest are equally wonderful ‘Blessed
are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ‘Yes, says the Spirit, so they
may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’ (14:13). ‘Behold,
I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the
one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked
and men will not see his shame’ (16:15); ‘blessed are those who are invited to
the marriage supper of the Lamb’ (19:9); ‘blessed and holy is the one who has a
part in the first resurrection’ (20:6); ‘blessed are those who wash their
robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by
the gates into the city’(22:14).’”
MacArthur adds that the words “reads, hear, and heed” are
all in the present tense so as we read, hear and heed what is found in this
book (and this applies to the rest of Scripture) are to be a way of life for
believers. MacArthur goes on to write “The
change from the singular ‘he who reads’ to the plural ‘those who hear the words
of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it’ depicts a
first-century church service. It was
common practice when the church gathered for one person to read the Scriptures
aloud for all to hear (cf. 1 Tim. 4:13).
Dr. Robert L. Thomas explains that ‘because writing materials were
expensive and scarce, so were copies of the books that were parts of the
biblical canon. As a rule, one copy per
Christian assembly was the best that could be hoped for. Public reading was the only means that
rank-and-file Christians had for becoming familiar with the contents of these
books.
“The book of Revelation is God’s final word to man, the
culmination of divine revelation. Its
writing marked the completion of the canon of Scripture (cf. 22:18-19), and its
scope encompasses the entire future sweep of redemptive history (1:19). Therefore it is imperative that believers pay
diligent heed to the truths it contains.”
As you think about this statement for a while it will give great meaning
for the book we are studying is what the Lord Jesus Christ has to say to us,
and He will not send us anymore. Something else is that as I think of all of
the Bibles that I have and ways of listening and other learning tools that
believes like me have it makes me think of how hard it was for the early church
members to grow, and yet as we will read in chapters two and three we will find
out that there were people in those early churches that truly did grow in a
wonderful way.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I truly desire to
receive the blessing that are offered in this book, and truly desire to receive
the rewards that are also described in this book for serving the Lord Jesus
Christ in this life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, and
strength and also to believe in my heart how much the Lord loves me and live
like I know this truth.
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, an 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: “Benjamin” (Genesis 42:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “What is Matthew 7:12 often
called?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/5/2015 12:02 PM
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