SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/10/2015
11:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Setting
of John’s Vision
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
1:9-11
Message of the
verses: I think that I mentioned
that there are a total of 404 verses in the entire book of Revelation, and we
are not on the tenth day looking at the marvelous book and hopefully we will
finish the first eleven verses of chapter one.
It is very important to understand this first chapter so that we can
then build upon what we have learned from it as we progress through the book. Now the rest of this chapter verses 9-20
speak of the vision that John has, and this vision really begins the book as
the first part was John’s introduction to this book. John MacArthur entitles his chapter on these
verses “The Vision of the Glorified Son,” and I am hoping that we will be able
to finish these twelve verses by the end of next week, as there are many
important things in them that we must learn before we proceed into chapters 2-3
which speak of the seven churches that this book originally went to.
Before we begin looking at these verses let’s take a
brief look at the history of the Church up until the time when John received
this vision so that we can set up why it was so important that he got this
vision at the time that he got it. In
the 21st chapter of John which takes place after the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, but before He ascended into heaven we have a scene that takes
place at the Sea of Galilee where we see several of our Lord’s disciples
fishing all night but catching nothing.
The see a “man” on the beach who asks them if they had caught anything
which they reply no, so He tells them to fish on the other side of the boat to
which they caught so many fish that their boat began to sink. John tells Peter it is the Lord and so Peter
jumps in the water to talk to Jesus, which was one of the purposes of this
visit to them. We see in this section
that Jesus restores Peter from the sin of denying Jesus three times and then He
tells Peter how his death will glorify Him to which Peter asks Jesus how John
would die. Jesus in essences tells him
that was none of his business and if He wanted John to live until He returned
that was up to Him. Now why do I bring
this up? Several reasons, first of all
when we look at the history of the church from the time it began in Acts
chapter two up until around 64-65 AD we see that both Paul and Peter were martyred
for the cause of Christ, but John was still alive, just as Jesus had said, and
we can believe that the reason John was still alive was to receive the vision
that we are studying, the book of Revelation.
When the church began most people thought it was a sect
of Judaism, but after the Jews began to persecute the church that theory went
out the window. Most of the people in
the Roman Empire worshiped idols, and there came a point when all people were
to offer sacrifices to the emperors of the Roman Empire, something that the
Christians could not do, and so many were killed. Nero blamed the church for the fire that burned
in Rome on July 19th AD 64 and so the tribulation of the believers began
from the Romans. The next emperor who
caused so much trouble for the church was Domitian and this brings us to the
time when John’s tribulation for the cause of Christ comes along. We will see more of this when we begin to
look at the verses. God is never in a
hurry, but God is never late is a saying that is true and you can look at the
life of Jesus while on earth to see that that statement is correct. The church needed to be lifted up by the Lord
at this time in its history and that is one of the reasons for the timing of
this book that comes from a vision given to John, as John did as he was told
and sent it to the seven churches and thus it spread further after they got
this book until we who own a Bible have a copy of it too.
I used a quote from a book that I am reading, written by
Warren Wiersbe in our last SD, and I want to use that book to give another
quote today. One may wonder what those
who are not true believers many times do not like those who are and as we have
taken a very brief look at the persecution of the church in the early part of
it today this question is worth asking and hopefully this quote I give will
help us understand it. “Satan is ‘the
ruler of this world,’ and you and I are rebellious aliens living in his
territory. Because we are citizens of
heaven, we obey heaven’s laws and submit to heaven’s Lord. Satan wants us to worship and serve him; he
wants our will submitted to his will.”
The title of the book from where this quote came from is “The Strategy
of Satan” and the chapter it is quoted from is about the will of the
believer.
As we look at these verses we are going to see the
humility of John and this got me to thinking about humility, something that, at
times, is difficult for us as believers to have because we have been given so
much from our Lord. Our example is that
of Jesus Christ and the text that shows this greatly is Philippians 2:5-8 “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.” There is our example to follow,
so let us think about this for a moment as we look back at the quote from
Warren Wiersbe. We, those who are true
believers, were once in the same place as unbelievers, we were ruled by the
ruler of this world system, that is Satan, but then one day the Holy Spirit of
God gave us an offer we could not refuse and we accepted Jesus Christ as our
Savior and our Lord and we were changed.
This was a free gift to us and Paul writes all things in 2Co 5:17 “Therefore
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” This was a free gift from the Lord, something
we could never earn if we worked for it for a million years. What do we as believers have to be proud
about as if we did something to receive eternal life on our own? “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.” This
comes from Ephesians 2:8-9. When we look
at the life of the apostle John we see that in his gospel he did not even use
his name one time, nor in the letters he wrote and this shows us a picture of
his humility. Now in the book of
Revelation we do see his name and that is probably due to the fact that he
could not figure out why he was so blessed to see what he was seeing as we see “I,
John” in many of the places we see his name mentioned, not all, but many.
The following is a quote from the end of John MacArthur’s
introduction to the chapter in his commentary that verses 9-20 come from: “the vision of Jesus Christ that begins the book does not describe Jesus
in His future glory, but depicts Him in the present as the glorified Lord of
the church. In spite of all the
disappointments, the Lord had not abandoned His church or His promises. This powerful vision of Christ’s present
ministry to them must have provided great hope and comfort to the wondering and
suffering churches to whom John wrote.
Verses 9-20 provide the setting for the vision, unfold the vision
itself, and relate its effects.” I find
the highlighted portion of this quote very interesting.
This was the introduction and now we will look at the
verses.
“9 I,
John, your brother
and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are
in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and
the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the
Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a
trumpet, 11 saying, "Write in a book what you see,
and send it to the seven
churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and
to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."
Part of John’s humility comes up as we look at “your brother and fellow partaker
in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus,
after all John was one of the three that were in the inner circle of Jesus’
ministry while on earth. Peter says
something similar “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind
as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:” And
when we look at Jude and also James who were the half brothers of Jesus we don’t
see them bragging about this at all. We
see from these verses that John suffered just like the rest of those who he is
writing to at this time, and this is the reason that we find John on the island
of Patmos, a rock small island “located some forty miles offshore from Miletus
(a city in Asia Minor about thirty miles south of Ephesus; cf. Acts 20:15-17).” There was a prison there and John was there
because he was a criminal because of his belief in Jesus Christ which is what
the text tells us.
Now we look at the statement “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” and
perhaps this becomes a mystery to us.
John MacArthur writes “his experience transcended the bounds of normal
human apprehension. Under the Holy
Spirit’s control, John was transported to a plane of experience and perception
beyond that of the human senses. In that
state, God supernaturally revealed things to him.” I am studying the book of Ezekiel along with
studying Revelation and in the first and third chapters of Ezekiel we see that
this same thing happened to Ezekiel.
Daniel also had this happen to him.
Now some believe that the word’s Lord ’s Day means the
day of the Lord, but this is not true because of the words that are in the original
Greek. We have looked at that phrase “day
of the Lord when we were studying 2 Thessalonians and found out that the
ultimate meaning of that means what we will be looking at as we continue on in
the book of Revelation, especially the parts that describe the last three and a
half years of the tribulation and also the last battle, for this will be the
time when the wrath of the Lord will come upon those who reject His offer of
salvation and continue to sin. The
phrase “Lord’s day” means Sunday, for that is the day that the Lord Jesus
Christ was resurrected from the dead.
Now when we continue to look at verse ten we see that
John heard a verse and he describes it as being loud and like a trumpet. Let us look at Ezekiel 3:12 “Then the Spirit
lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, "Blessed be
the glory of the LORD in His place."”
The voice that John heard was the same voice that Ezekiel heard, that of
the Lord Jesus Christ. MacArthur writes “Throughout
the book of Revelation, a loud voice or sound indicates the solemnity of what
is about to be revealed (cf. 5:2, 12; 6:10; 7:2, 10-8:13; 10:3; 11:12, 15;
12:10; 14:2, 15, 18; 16:1, 17; 19:1, 17; 21:3).” Similar was what happened when the Lord gave
the Law as described in Exodus 19:16 “So it came about on the third day, when
it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud
upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who
were in the camp trembled.”
This voice of whom we have already identified as the
voice of Jesus Christ told John to write in a book “what you see.” MacArthur writes “This is the first of twelve
commands in the book of Revelation for John to write what he say (cf. v 19;
2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; 14:13; 19:9; 21:5); on one other occasion he was
forbidden to write (10:4).”
Next we see to who John is to send this letter to and
then he gives the names of the churches.
One more quote from MacArthur and we will be done with the part of the
SD. These seven churches were chosen because
they were located in key cities of the seven postal districts into which Asia
was divided. They were thus the central
points for disseminating information.
“The seven cities appear in the order that a messenger,
traveling on the great circular road that linked them would visit them.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I guess getting
your toes stepped on is a good thing when you are reading the Word of God, and
the little lesson on humility was important for me to listen to and to write.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
and strength, and to believe that 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 Now if these qualities are yours and
increasing, then render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Joseph” (Genesis 37:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Of what country was Jotham
king?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/10/2015 1:08 PM
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