SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/12/2015
10:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Reign of the Saints
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
20:4-6
Message of the
verses: “4 Then I saw thrones, and
they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those
who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the
word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had
not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to
life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did
not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first
resurrection. 6 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.”
We have written about the Lord Jesus Christ ruling over
the whole earth during this millennial kingdom from Jerusalem, a promise that
was made to Him by God the Father in the Old Testament but now we will see in
this section the promise that believers will reign with Him during this
time. As we look at what we have already
been studying in the book of Revelation we have seen that the word “angel” and “angels”
have been used over seventy times and what we have seen them doing is serving
the Lord, something we have also seen in the book of Daniel and other books
from even the NT, so it should come to no surprise to see that resurrected
saints will be working with the Lord Jesus Christ as He rules the earth during
this time period. Another thing to
remember is that Paul writes that there will come a day when we rule over angels. Angels that did not follow Satan have never
understood what we as believers go through for they do not have the sin nature
that we as believers have, so perhaps this is the reason that believers will be
over angels during this time period.
John MacArthur writes the following about what we see in
verse four regarding the “thrones” that John sees in his vision: “Several suggestions have been offered
concerning the identity of the saints who sat on the thrones, but they can best
be identified by determining who God promised would reign. Daniel 7:27 promises that the Old Testament
saints will reign in the millennial kingdom:
’Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the
kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of
the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the
dominions will serve and obey Him.’”
Jesus promised the apostles that ‘you who have followed Me, in the
regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Matthew
19:28). New Testament believers are also
promised that they will reign with Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 6:2 Paul wrote ‘Do you not know that the saints will
judge the world?’ while 2 Timothy 2:12 declares, ‘If we endure, we will also
reign with Him.’ In Revelation 2:26
Jesus promises, ‘He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to
him I will give authority over the nations,’ and in Revelation 3:21 He adds, ‘He
who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also
overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.’ Revelation 5:10 makes it clear that the
saints will reign on the earth, not in a spiritual sense or in the heavenly
sphere: ‘You have made them to be a
kingdom and priest to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.’”
Now we want to look at the last group of saints who will
reign with Christ in His kingdom as John “saw the souls of those who had been
beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God,
and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received
the mark on their forehead and on their hand.”
We can figure who these are as they are the saints who have died for the
cause of Christ during the Tribulation period.
John MacArthur writes “pelekizo
(beheaded) literally means, ‘to cut with an axe,’ and is a figure of speech
meaning ‘to put to death or ‘to execute.’
The empire of Antichrist exterminated Tribulation saints ‘because of
their testimony of Jesus’ (cf. 1:9; 12:17; 19:10), because ‘they faithfully
proclaimed the word of God’ (cf. 1:2; 6:9), and because ‘they had not worshiped
the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on
their hand’ (cf. 13:16-17; 14:9-11; 16:2, 19:20).”
These Tribulation saints were faithful even to their
death which evidenced their salvation and so we read “they came to life and
reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
John MacArthur writes Ezesan
(they came to life) cannot refer to a spiritual resurrection (regeneration or
the new birth), since the Tribulation martyrs were already spiritually
alive. When used in connection with
physical death, the root form of ezesan
(zao) is used throughout the New Testament to describe physical, bodily
resurrection (cf. 1:18; 2:8; 13:14; 20:5; Matt. 9:18; 27:63; Mark 5:23; Luke
24:23; John 11:25; Acts 1:3; 9:41; Rom. 14:9; 2 Cor. 13:4).”
Next we read a parenthetical footnote “The rest of the
dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.” He is here speaking of the unbelieving dead
from all ages, whose resurrection to judgment and damnation will be described
in verses 11-15. We next read that the
resurrection of all the saints is called the “first resurrection,” and in Luke
14:14b we read for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’” There are other names for this resurrection
in the NT “the resurrection of life” (John 5:29), the resurrection of “those
who are Christ’s at His coming” as seen in Hebrews 11:35. MacArthur writes “The use of anastasis (Resurrection) offers further
evidence that the resurrection described in verse 4 is a physical
resurrection. The word is used forty-two
times in the New Testament, always of a physical resurrection (except in Luke
2:34, where the context clearly demands another meaning).”
We next read about the fifth of the seven beatitudes in
Revelation which says “blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first
resurrection.” If there are things like
having understatements in Scripture this is one of them for it speaks of the
difference between of those who will go to heaven and those who will go into
hell which is what the “second death” means as it is described in verse 14 “Then
death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death,
the lake of fire.” This is a comforting
statement to read as far as believers, for they will not see the wrath of God
as Paul writes in Romans 5:9 “having now been justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
Paul then add the following when writing to the Thessalonians “Jesus…rescues
us from the wrath to come…For God has not destined us for wrath, but for
obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:10;
5:9).
Next we look at the statement that those who a part of
the first resurrection will also be blessed because “they will be priests of
God and of Christ” something we have touched on from Revelation 1:6 “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.”
Also from Revelation 5:10 “"You have made them to be a kingdom and
priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."” Peter writes that all true believers are
already priests “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION,
A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of
Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” One of the things that priest do is to
intercede for others and we can do this because of what our Lord Jesus Christ
has done for us by dying on the cross to give us salvation and a right standing
before God.
John MacArthur concludes this section: “The final blessing for the participants in
the ‘first resurrection’ is that they ‘will reign with’ the Lord Jesus Christ ‘for
a thousand years,’ along with believers who survived the Tribulation. Politically and socially, the rule of Christ
and His saints will be universal (Ps. 2:6-8; Dan. 2:35), absolute (Ps. 2:9;
Isa. 11:4), and righteous (Isa. 11:3-5).
Spiritually, their rule will be a time when the believing remnant of
Israel is converted (Jer. 30:5-8; Rom. 11:26) and the nation is restored to the
land God promised to Abraham (Gen. 12:14-15; 15:18). It will be a time when the Gentile nations
also will worship the King (Isa. 11:9; Mic. 4:2; Zech. 14:16). The millennial rule of Christ and the saints
will also be marked by the presence of righteousness and peace (Isa. 32:17) and
joy (Isa. 12:3-4; 61:3, 7). Physically,
it will be a time when the curse is lifted (Isa. 11:7-9; 20:23-24; 35:1-2, 7),
when food will be plentiful (Joel 2:21-27), and when there will be physical
health and well-being (Isa. 33:24; 35:5-6), leading to long life (Isa. 65:20).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is good to
read the promises that will come to those who are believers in Jesus Christ,
and this should give everyone who reads this including the author the desire to
tell others about how the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to pay for the sins of all
who will accept His payment for their sins.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to fight the good fight, and to live
like the Lord desires me to live through His strength in my life.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Pharoah” (Genesis 41:17-18).
Today’s Bible question: “Name the pool in Jerusalem where Jesus
healed an impotent man?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/12/2015 12:15 PM
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