SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/15/2015
8:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Song of
the Worthy One PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
5:8-14
Message of the
verses: “8 When He had taken the book, the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one
holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the
saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the
book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with
Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 “You have
made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the
earth." 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the
throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was
myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing." 13 And every created thing
which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all
things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the
Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." 14
And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders
fell down and worshiped.”
As we have been looking at this song for the last three
days we have seen that it begins with John seeing and being informed that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb and the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords is indeed worthy to take up this book and to open it
scrolls. MacArthur writes “To break the
book’s seals means to enact the judgments written in it. Then, further reinforcing Christ’s
worthiness, the son continues, ‘for You were slain, and purchased for God with
Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. That phrase elaborates on the statement of
verse 6 that the Lamb had been slain, explaining the significance of His
death. It was Christ’s substitutionary, sacrificial
death that ‘purchased for God…men from every tribe and tongue and people and
nation. Purchased’ is from agorazo, a rich New Testament word for
redemption that pictures slaves purchased in the marketplace and then set
free. At the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ paid the purchase price (His own blood; 1 Pet. 1:18-19) to redeem men
from every tribe (descent) and tongue (language) and people (race) and nation (culture)
from the slave market of sin (cf. 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; Gal 3:13). Those four terms appear together also in
Revelation 7:9; 11:9; 13:7; and 14:6 and encompass all of humanity.” This is quite a statement of what Christ did
for those who have and who will in the future trust Him as Savior and Lord.
When we opened the book of Revelation back on the first
of January we talked about the necessity of God giving us this wonderful book,
for the church was being persecuted, the apostles were all dead with the
exception of John, and one could say that they were losing their hope, and then
our Lord comes to John on the island where he was imprisoned and gives him this
wonderful book, a book of hope and direction as to what would happen to the
church and how the world will end and what will happen after the world will
end. Now John can see in this song that one
day the church will grow all around the world and our Lord will save people
from all around the world, and this must have thrilled his heart when he heard
this song.
The results of redemption are seen in the following words
of this song “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and
they will reign upon the earth.” The
song uses the word “them” and not us and MacArthur writes that this “indicates
the vastness and comprehensiveness of redemption.” Next we see the words “priests of our God,”
and we can compare this to 20:6 where it says “Blessed and holy is the one who
has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power,
but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a
thousand years.” MacArthur writes that
this “signifies their complete access to God’s presence for worship and
service. The present priesthood of believers (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) foreshadows that future
day when we will have total access to and perfect communion with God. During the millennial kingdom, believers ‘will
reign upon the earth’ with Christ (20:6; 2 Tim. 2:12).”
For the fourth time in this chapter John says that he saw
something, and what he saw he reports in verse 11: “Then I looked, and I heard
the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the
elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of
thousands.” Daniel writes something
similar in 7:10 “"A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before
Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were
standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.” What we see is the voices of the four living
creatures along with the twenty-four elders are added by many, many angels, so
many they can’t be counted. Whatever the
number it is two times the amount of the fallen angels. What they are saying is a familiar doxology “Worth
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and
honor and glory and blessing” and they said it was a loud voice. This also is focused on the redemption that
Christ has made possible through His death on the cross.
Now comes the great crescendo “every created thing which
is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all
things in them” joins in. MacArthur
writes “This all-inclusive statement is
reminiscent of Psalm 69:34: ‘Let heaven
and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them,’ and the
concluding verse of the Psalms, ‘Let everything that has breath praise the
Lord. Praise the Lord!’ (Ps. 15:6). This mighty chorus cries out, ‘To Him who
sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and
dominion forever and ever.’ Endless blessing
endless honor, endless praise, endless glory, and endless worship belong to God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The creation is unable to contain its joy over its imminent redemption
(cf. Rom. 8:19-22).” “19 For the anxious
longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to
futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set
free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the
children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the
pains of childbirth together until now.”
We see the following as the song ends “And the four
living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and
worshiped.” At the beginning of this
section that included both chapter four and chapter five we stated that we
would see worship that was done in heaven, and that is what we saw and even see
in this fourteenth verse.
Next we will look at what will happen when the seals will
be opened in chapter six and the results of this will go all the way through
chapter nineteen.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As we began to
look at the churches that Christ wrote to in chapters 2-3 we saw in the first
church, Ephesus, that Christ told them that they had lost their love for Him
and learned that this began a great downward spiral with the churches, though
not including Smyrna and Philadelphia.
Now as I have competed my study on chapters 4-5 and seen heavenly
worship, and been reminded that Jesus Christ purchased me out of the slave
market of sin I can say that I have been renewed in my love for Him and this is
actually the theme of what I want to do this year.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand the love Christ has for me, and to
live in that love.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Peter” (Acts 4:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “The ark of the Lord was in
what country for seven months?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/15/2015 9:05 AM
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