SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/15/2015 8:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Effects of the Vision PT-1-3
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 Joh, 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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