Jesus in the Book of Revelation (5)
Pray Psalm 48.1-3.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge
Sing Psalm 48.1-3.
(Cwm Rhondda: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah)
Great is God, now greatly praise Him in the city of the LORD!
Holy she, His lovely mountain, great and glorious by His Word!
God her King is great within her, He, her Stronghold ever sure!
He, her Stronghold ever sure!
Read Rev. 19.15-21; 20.6-15; meditate on Rev. 20.6.
Preparation
1. Who will know judgment and condemnation from the Lord?
2. Who will not?
Meditation
In our proclamation of the Good News of Christ and His Kingdom, we must not omit to explain that He is also the Judge of all nations. By His resurrection from the dead, we have resurrection life (the “first resurrection”) and the nations are put on notice that He is coming again in judgment. Paul: “‘[God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead’” (Acts 17.31).
We who have known the first resurrection, being born again into the Kingdom of God, are priests of God and Christ, and rule with Him to advance and develop His Kingdom. Our calling is to serve as intermediaries between God and men, working to reconcile and bring people to saving grace and to implement the good and perfect will of God into every place and sphere where God has placed us as His vice-regents.
We are called to be holy, as He is holy, and we have the precious and very great promises of God, that we might partake of Him, and thus be fully equipped for every good work. This is the great blessing that accompanies holiness: To know Jesus increasingly with the promise that one day we shall see Him face to face and be like Him (1 Jn. 3.1-3). There is no condemnation for all who believe (Rom. 8.1), and we will not be subject to Jesus’ judgment and wrath when He comes again.
How important it is to see our lives in this way, so that we might know the Spirit of God at work in us, willing and doing of God’s good pleasure, and that we might be faithful to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom in all its fullness.
Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
It is said that people today would rather be famous than popular, rich, or gainfully employed.
One could not be more famous than to be written into the Lamb’s Book of Life!
How do we get our names written there? And how do we avoid the second death?
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10.9, 10).
“But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Rev. 21.27).
There are a couple of caveats that need attention:
1. Believing unto righteousness (i.e., holy living Ex. 20.1-17; Matt. 22.37-40).
2. Living and speaking the truth, and following the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14.6).
Back in the very beginning, when the first sibling rivalry occurred, Cain was contemplating violence against his brother Abel. So, God came to him and talked with him. Warning him, He said:
“If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.
And its desire is for you,
but you should rule over it” (Gen. 4.7).
And because we know that all God’s words spoken to others, are also meant for us, we should take heed to this warning. We know how to get our names written in the Book of Life; but are we willing to make the effort to do all that is required?
We know how to “do well”; and we hear God saying, “rule over sin”. But will we?
How badly do we want to be famous?
How important is it that we please the Creator of our souls?
How scared should we be of the Judge of all nations?
“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Prov. 16.32).
The Helper, The Holy Spirit, longs to assist us in following Jesus, and to give us the strength to put our hand to the plow and never turn back (Lk. 9.62).
However, we must daily seek out the Lord Jesus in His Word.
Jesus pointed out to the two folks on the road to Emmaus, with whom He walked after His resurrection, that it is in the Scriptures that we learn the full Gospel story. All the truth—the good news and the difficult.
“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Lk. 24.27). Dare we ever think to know better than Jesus?
Being written in the Book of Life should be the “desire of all nations” (Hag. 2.7).
Belonging in the Book is the “joy of the whole earth” (Ps. 48.2).
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8.1).
Imagine, we are written in unerasable ink, in the Lamb’s Book of Life, we who wholeheartedly belong to and follow Him—to the end. Only Jesus could make this possible. Thank You, dearest Savior.
Reflection
1. Why do we as believers not fear the coming judgment of the Lord?
2. Why is it important that the coming judgment be part of our Gospel witness?
3. Paul wrote that the wrath of God is already being revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men (Rom.1.18-32). How can you see that this is true?
We know something of what the first death is, and it is very awful; but we know not what this second death is. It must be much more dreadful; it is the death of the soul, eternal separation from God. May we never know what it is: those who have been made partakers of a spiritual resurrection, are saved from the power of the second death. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Revelation 20.4-6
Pray Psalm 48.4-14.
Pray that the nations will be awakened to the truth of Jesus, and will stream up to Him rather than flee His Presence (Mic. 4.1-8).
Sing Psalm 48.4-14.
(Cwm Rhondda: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah)
Earthly kings, amazed and wond’ring, look upon the Church with fear.
See them flee in dread and anguish, knowing that the LORD is near.
For the city of the Savior, God will keep forevermore!
God will keep forevermore!
For Your grace and lovingkindness we proclaim Your matchless worth!
As Your Name is, great and boundless, let Your praise fill all the earth.
Let Your people sing rejoicing for the judgment of Your truth;
for the judgment of Your truth.
Walk about the blessèd city, see her beauty, see her power.
Count her ramparts, filled with glory, look on every mighty tower.
Tell her glory to the nations: God will guide her evermore;
God will guide her evermore!
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: Our ReVision series on “The Kingdom Economy” turns to consider the work we’ve been given to do. In our Read Moore column, we continue working through the book, Understanding the Times. And I encourage you to follow our Crosfigell series on Brendan of Clonfert, nicknamed “The Navigator.” Join us and find out why. Click the Articles tab on the home page to see all the selections available to you.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
