Revelation 1:17-18 "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying,“Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."
In yesterday's post we began considering the idea of wanting more of Jesus Christ. The cry of my heart this week has been: I want more of Jesus. The Apostle John enables us to meet that need. We saw yesterday in Revelation 1:12-16 we discovered the first reason to want more of Jesus: His shining light. As the Savior and Lord amidst the golden lampstands of His church, Jesus Christ shines in her midst. Likewise from Revelation 1:16 we discovered Jesus Christ's face shining like the brilliance of the sun in its strength as the light over His church. As 1 John 1:7 notes: "If we walk in the light even as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."
In today's post we consider a second reason for wanting more of Jesus: His Strengthening Comfort.
The Strengthening Love of Jesus. Revelation 1:17-18
How Jesus has strengthened others with His love
Once John saw the complete view of the Glorified Ascended Savior, the text tells us that: "I fell at His feet like a dead man." The prophet Daniel, writing 600 years or so before John, had a similar response to seeing Jesus Christ before the flesh. In Daniel 10:9-10 we read: "So I was left alone and saw this great vision; yet no strength was left in me, for my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength. 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." The phrase translated "deathly pallor" in 10:8 could also be rendered from the original language "my inner strength left me, my health suddenly went the other direction and my body began to destroy itself to death."
Like John, Daniel's vision of the Heavenly Christ resulted in the same effects on his physical being. Remarkably and wonderfully, both men received the same response from the Savior. In Daniel's experience the Pre-incarnated Christ dispatched an angelic emissary to say to him in Daniel 10:12 "Do not be afraid". In John's experience the Incarnate Christ skipped the angel and went to John Himself and told John in Revelation 1:17 "Do not be afraid, I am the First and the last."
Jesus Christ strengthened both John and Daniel with His love. Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus uttering these strong and loving words: "Fear Not." For example when the disciples were caught in the middle of a storm, Jesus walked out to them on the water and yelled out to them: "Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid." (Matthew 14:17) When Peter, James and John followed Jesus up to the Mount of Transfiguration, and they saw a glimpse of His Divine glory, fear entered into their hearts. Yet Jesus told them in Matthew 17:7 "Get up and do not be afraid." Then of course when Jesus was giving His disciples their final instructions before ascending into Heaven, He told them in Matthew 28:10 "Do not be afraid."
Wanting more of Jesus will result in you be strengthened by His love
Do you know that the Apostle John was present there for all of those episodes, and now He was hearing those familiar words from His Master: "Do not be afraid." Jesus was strengthening Him with His love. Do you know that Jesus does that for you and me dear Christian? His strengthening love of affirmation: "fear not", is given to us by the Holy Spirit as explained in 2 Timothy 1:7 "for we have not been given a Spirit of fear, but rather of love, power and a sound mind." Whenever you are worrying, we take our prayers to Him and the promise is given of the "peace of God surpassing all understanding" being the guard over our hearts in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
In all these passages where Jesus is saying "do not fear", He is getting His people ready for a greater level of ministry and Christian living. Whenever you and I are challenged to grow or reach out to others, it can be scary and overwhelming. Nevertheless Jesus' strengthening love will raise us up to stand on our feet and do the Master's bidding.
How we know Jesus is able to strengthen us with love that is greater than our need
The strengthening love of Jesus is more than enough, based upon the fact of Who He is and what He is able to do. In the remainder of Revelation 1:18 we find four descriptive titles of Jesus:
a. "I am the first and the last". He shares in the same Deity as the Father, who in Isaiah 44:6 identifies Himself as "the first and the last", as well as Revelation 1:8.
b. "the the Living One, who was dead, behold I am alive forever more." Jesus is more powerful than death, for he raised from the dead.
c. "I have the keys of death and hades". Jesus' strengthening love is far more powerful than satan, who at one time had the power of death until Christ snatched it from him in His resurrection. (Hebrews 2:14-15) The strengthening love of Jesus Christ ensures the victory of believers and the church in accomplishing the mission given to her by the Lord - not even hell can defeat the church. (Matthew 16:18)
My prayer is that you and I would want more of Jesus. His strengthening love tells us "do not fear". Let us rest in Him today and seek Him with all of our heart.
Revelation 1:12 "Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands."
As you study the book of Revelation, the one desire that should continue to grow in your heart is wanting more of Jesus Christ. John's experience thus far in the Book of Revelation has been a "hearing experience". But as we will soon see, John's experience of Jesus in this Divine revelation will turn into a "seeing experience". Like Job in Job 42:5 - “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You." John is going to see and hear Jesus in a way that he hasn't experienced since the early years of his Christian life some sixty years before. As we will see in today's blog, the full-length vision of Jesus Christ, as well as John's response to it, will lead to the glorified Christ commissioning John to write his blessed apocalypse. Reading these verses makes me want more of Jesus Christ.
As we begin considering Revelation 1:12-20, we ask the following question: "Why should you and I want more of Jesus Christ?" Consider the fact that Jesus Christ is...
1. Shining Light. Revelation 1:12-16
2. Strengthening Love. Revelation 1:17-18
3. Supreme Lord. Revelation 1:19-20
Jesus Christ is the Shining Light. Revelation 1:12-16
John says in Revelation 1:12 "I turned to see". What did He turn to see? The text continues: "the voice which was speaking with me, and I turned around and saw seven golden lampstands." John saw "a voice" and "the lampstands" and then in verse 13 we read: "and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like "a son of man". Now thankfully the book of Revelation has a built in interpretive system to unfold some of its mysteries. Revelation 1:20 explains - "As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."
Jesus Christ shine light in the midst of His church. 1:12-15
Notice then what John sees: he sees the voice of Christ speaking to Him, which elsewhere is described as God's written word. (Colossians 3:16; 1 Peter 1:23) The lampstands or the church is the the next thing John sees. God has ordained in this age that the church, proclaiming the scriptures shows forth to the world the Lord Who is in her midst. (Matthew 5:16
The lampstands in these verses hearkens one back to the days of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple. (compare Exodus 25:31-40) In those worship centers no windows were present. Once the priests entered into the interior room called "the holy place", the only source of illumination was the seven branched lampstand or "menorah", which in the Hebrew tongue means "light bearer, lamp". The Golden Lampstand in the Old Testament was designed to illuminate the interior of the tabernacle or temple and to symbolize the Divine presence of God in the innermost room called "The Most Holy Place". Without that Lampstand, the place of ministry in the temple would had been plunged into darkness. Exodus 30:8 instructed the priests to tend to the lampstand every morning and evening to insure that the light was not quenched.
Jesus Christ is the light shining over His church. 1:16
It is with the lampstand imagery that God shows John that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Shining light in his church. As you go down through the verse, Revelation 1:16 states - "In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength."
In the vision John sees Jesus holding the "seven stars" which Revelation 1:20 reveals to be "seven angels" or "messengers", most likely the pastors of the seven churches. No pastor can preach God's word apart from the Great Shepherd. The sharp two-edged sword corresponds to the scriptures by which He reigns over His church. (compare Hebrews 4:12)
The description of Christ's face is extraordinary: "and His face was like the sun shining in its strength." (Revelation 1:16) Scripture uses the sun as a word-picture for the glory of the Lord. In Psalm 84:11 we see God described as a "sun and a shield." In Malachi 4:2 the prophecy is given of Christ coming as the "Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings". The glimpse of Christ's Divine Glory given to John, Peter and James on the Mount of Transfiguration is described as "His face shone like the sun". (Matthew 17:2)
The sun is a light bearer, a middle sized star that is 93 million miles away from the earth. Big enough to contain over 1,000 earths, our sun energy output in one second could light a major city for hundreds of thousands of years.
Jesus Christ's glory shines light over His church. Without Him, the church would have no guidance, no power, no message, no existence. (Philippians 3:20-21; Acts 26:13) Jesus Christ's light shining over and in His church insures that we will have an open heaven We need Jesus' shining light to shine in our midst and above us.
more tomorrow....
1 Peter 5:12 Through Silvanus, our faithful brother (for so I regard him), I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!"
The Apostle Peter is the focus of today's post, in that he gives us a Biblical example of a Christian testimony of grace. The word "testimony" in scripture comes from a Greek word that we translate "martyr". Thus when someone was "martyred" for their faith, they were using their life to "testify" of their faith in Christ as being more valuable than life itself. In our everyday Christian usage, a testimony has come to refer to what life was like before salvation, followed by the circumstances wherein God called us to faith and repentance with a third part referring to our lives post-conversion.
I call the Apostle Peter the "apostle of grace" due to the nature of his Christian testimony, the message of his preaching in the book of Acts and the letters he wrote in 1 and 2 Peter. For today I want to sketch out the Christian Testimony of Peter as we see unfolded in the New Testament. As you will see, five components can be gleaned that help us understand what is part of a Christian Testimony of Grace.
1. Begins with the Call of Grace.
John 1:40-42 is the first place in redemptive history that we see Simon Peter being mentioned: "One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He *found first his own brother Simon and *said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter)." That first initial contact by Jesus of Peter led Peter to follow Jesus for about a day, but the manner of his following was more of curiosity than commitment.
Peter was outwardly called by Christ in his physical ears and mind. He was curious but not converted, and thus he resisted and went back to his fishing business along with the sons of Zebedee. A number of weeks and perhaps months would pass until Jesus would come calling on Peter again in Mark 1:16-17 "As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” This time the call of Christ was effective in reaching the ears of Peter's heart, for the passage states he immediately left his nets and followed Jesus. (Mark 1:18) The resistance to the gospel is the complete work of man, however the response to Jesus' call is due to the grace of God at work. Every Christian can testify of the times they heard the Gospel and resisted repeated attempts, however upon the hearing of the Gospel in which they believed, Grace alone can be credited for their free response. Salvation from beginning to end is a work of God's graceful call.
2. Birthed Through Faith.
Once grace came calling Peter's name through the voice of Christ, Peter's response was immediate. Faith in the original language means "firm persuasion." Faith is a Divine gifting of God that turns into a decision of the will. (John 1:12-13; Ephesians 2:8-9) Faith must first come in order to be freely received and acted upon. (Galatians 3:24-26). The New Birth is both a miracle that logically preceeds our faith and yet in actual practice is simultaneous with faith. As the Baptist Faith & message 2000 notes: "Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace." Without faith no one can be born again. (John 3:3,16). Peter was cut to the heart and from Mark 1:16-18 onward followed Christ as a genuine believer.
3. Boldness
Peter's testimony of grace centered around the boldness by which He expressed his faith-life, whether positively or negatively. The natural as well as spiritual boldness of Peter placed him first on the listings of twelve disciples mentioned throughout the Gospels. (Matt. 10:2; Mk 3:16; Lk 6:14-16; Acts 1:13) Once when Jesus slipped off to be alone with His Heavenly Father, Peter led the way to look for Him. (Mark 1:36-37) Peter was the first to confess Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:29) and was the first to enter into the empty tomb following Christ's resurrection. (John 20:6). Negatively Peter's denial of Christ is figured quite prominently in all four Gospels, however Peter is restored by Christ in John 21, indicating the leadership role Christ intended for him to perform in the early church. All in all, Peter's testimony is one of grace, whether in his triumphs or failures.
4. Brokenness.
Peter's testimony of grace includes those episodes where he experienced humiliation and brokenness before God. Mark 8:33 has Jesus rebuking him for his impulsive rebuke of Jesus. Mark 14:72 records the tearful episode wherein Peter denied our Lord three times. Then of course even later on in his Christian walk, Peter was confronted by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:11ff for his compromise of the Gospel with a powerful Jewish party. Peter's life was punctuated by brokenness, and yet Jesus restored him in John 21 and Paul was able to still refer to Peter as one of the three pillars of the early church in Galatians 2:9. Only when we are broken can we be healed. Every Christian who has moved forward in the faith has only done so when brokenness has occurred.
Bible Based
When you look at the life of the Apostle Peter, his testimony of grace began with God's call of grace, birthed through faith, was bold, included seasons of brokenness but was also Biblical based. At the end of John 6 we see many thousands of people leaving Jesus. Jesus turns to his twelve and inquires as to whether or not they will leave. Peter's response is that he has no where else to go since Jesus alone has the words of life. Church history tells us that Peter's preaching was the basis for Mark's Gospel and that he authored the two epistles bearing his name: 1 and 2 Peter. Throughout the book of Acts we see Peter preaching 5 Biblically saturated sermons. (Acts 2:14-36; 3:11-26; 4:8-12; 10:34-48; 15:7-11) Peter's love for scripture stemmed from his love for Jesus Christ.
May we as Christian people be those who have visible and obvious testimonies of grace.
