Topic : Revelation

Jesus Will Win

A friend told me of an incident that happened while he was in seminary. Since the school had no gymnasium, he and his friends played basketball in a nearby public school. The elderly janitor waited patiently until the seminarians finished playing. Invariably he sat there reading his Bible. One day my friend asked him what he was reading. The man answered, “The Book of Revelation.” Surprised, my friend asked if he understood it.

“Oh, yes,” the man assured him. “I understand it.”

“What does it mean?”

Very quietly the janitor answered, “It means that Jesus is gonna win.”

That is the best commentary I have ever heard on that book. Jesus is going to win. That is the Biblical mindset. That is the confidence we need as we face the future when—God alone knows when—the river may begin to rise again.

Vernon Grounds, Christianity Today, February 2, 1979

Resource

• The Other Jesus, L. J. Ogilvie, Word, 1986, pp. 218ff

Diverted Water Source

Muynak was once a thriving fishing port on the Aral Sea. But today, according to James Rupert of the Washington Post, Muynak sits on the edge of a bitter, salty desert. Sand dunes are strewn with the rusted, hollow hulls of a fishing fleet that once sailed high above on the surface of Central Asia’s fountain of life.

Things began changing 30 years ago when Stalinist planners began diverting the Aral’s water source to irrigate the world’s largest cotton belt. No one, however, envisioned the environmental disaster that would result. Weather has become more extreme, the growing season has been shortened by 2 months, and 80 percent of the region’s farmland has been ruined by salt storms that sweep in off the dry seabed.

What happened at Muynak parallels the history of the church of Ephesus. Once a thriving spiritual community, the Ephesian believers diverted their attention from Christ to works done in His name (Rev. 2:2-4). They had lost sight of what was most important in their relationship with Christ—their love for Him.

Our Daily Bread, June 19, 1993

Resource

• Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 25

Lost First Love

1. When my delight in the Lord is no longer as great as my delight in someone else, I have lost my first love.

2. When my soul does not long for times of rich fellowship in God’s Word or in prayer, I have lost my first love.

3. When my thoughts during leisure moments do not reflect upon the Lord, I have lost my first love.

4. When I claim to be “only human” and easily give in to those things I know displease the Lord, I have lost my first love.

5. When I do not willingly and cheerfully give to God’s work or to the needs of others, I have lost my first love.

6. When I cease to treat every Christian brother as I would the Lord, I have lost my first love.

7. When I view the commands of Christ as restrictions to my happiness rather than expressions of His love, I have lost my first love.

8. When I inwardly strive for the acclaim of this world rather than the approval of the Lord, I have lost my first love.

9. When I fail to make Christ or His words known because I fear rejection, I have lost my first love.

10. When I refuse to give up an activity which I know is offending a weaker brother, I have lost my first love.

11. When I become complacent to sinful conditions around me, I have lost my first love.

12. When I am unable to forgive another for offending me, I have lost my first love.

Pulpit Helps, May, 1992

Forty Wrestlers

One winter when the Roman emperor Licinius was persecuting the Christians, his Thundering Legion was stationed at Sebaste. Because 40 men in that company had declared themselves believers, they were sentenced to spend the night naked on a frozen pool. A large fire was kindled in a house nearby, and food and a warm bath were prepared for any who would renounce their faith. As daylight faded, 40 warriors continued to resist in spite of the bitter cold—some walking quickly to and fro, some already sleeping that sleep which ends in death, and some standing lost in prayer. These words arose to Heaven, “O Lord, 40 wrestlers have come forth to fight for Thee. Grant that 40 wrestlers may gain the victory!” Finally, one of them could endure the suffering no longer. He left the others and went into the house where Sempronius and his men were on guard. But still the petition went up from those able to speak, “O Lord, 40 wrestlers have come forth to fight for Thee. Grant that 40 wrestlers may gain the victory!” Their prayer was answered. Sempronius the centurion was touched by his comrades’ bravery, and the Holy Spirit moved upon his heart. Declaring himself a Christian, he went to the frozen pond and took the place of the one defector. When the long night was over, 40 glorious spirits, Sempronius among them, had entered into the presence of Christ.

If severe testing or persecution arises, will you, will I, be faithful to Christ? By His grace may we be able to say, “Let God be glorified, ‘whether it be by life or by death’” (Phil. 1:20). -H.G.B.

Our Daily Bread, November 14

I Know Thy Works

“I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and all thy works; and the last to be more than the first” (Revelation 2:19).

Seven times, in the letters to His seven representative churches, in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord Jesus says: “I know thy works” (Revelation 2:2,9,13,19; 3:1,8,15). Whatever we are doing—or not doing—He knows!

Sometimes, such knowledge can bring—or at least should bring—great consternation. He knows, for example, all our hypocrisies: “I know that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1). He also knows when our outward display of religious activity masks a real heart-attitude of compromising self-interest. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot” (Revelation 3:15).

Yet He also knows when our service is genuine and our testimony is God-glorifying and faithful. “I know thy labour and thy patience.” “I know thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith” (Revelation 2:2,13).

Of these seven testimonies of His knowledge, the central one is the assurance of our text. He knows when we really love Him, for the “charity” mentioned is nothing less than agape, or unselfish love. He knows all about our sincere “service” and true “faith” in His Word, as well as our “patience” of hope.

Perhaps the most precious of His assurances, however, is that to the suffering church at Smyrna. “I know thy tribulation, and poverty” (Revelation 2:9). When He says that He knows, the sense is that He understands, because He has been through it all Himself, and therefore He can meet whatever needs may come. His tribulation was unto the death, and His poverty such that, when He died, He possessed nothing but the clothes He wore and even His clothing was taken away from Him at the last moment. Therefore, “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15,16). - HMM

Source unknown

Sardis

“Write to Sardis,” saith the Lord,
“And write what He declares,
He whose Spirit, and whose word,
Upholds the seven stars:

All thy works and ways I search,
Find thy zeal and love decay’d;
Thou art call’d a living church,
But thou art cold and dead.

“Watch, remember, seek, and strive,
Exert thy former pains;
Let thy timely care revive,
And strengthen what remains;

Cleanse thine heart, thy works amend,
Former times to mind recall,
Lest my sudden stroke descend,
And smite thee once for all.

“Yet I number now in thee
A few that are upright;
These my Father’s face shall see,
And walk with me in white.

When in judgment I appear,
They for mine shall be confess’d;
Let my faithful servants hear,—
And woe be to the rest!”

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

Sardis: Cocky and Confident

Sardis seemed impregnable, sitting on a hill surrounded by high cliffs which no army could scale. Cocky and confident, the people of Sardis slept soundly while Cyrus, the Persian king, and his army climbed the steep cliffs. When the sun rose over Sardis on that day in 549 B.C., its inhabitants discovered they should have been watching instead of sleeping. Did the people of Sardis learn a lesson? Perhaps—but they failed to tell it to their children. In 214 B.C. Sardis again fell when Antiochus the Great surprised the sleeping city by scaling the cliffs at night.

Today in the Word, June, 1990, p. 14

Resource

• Bibliotheca Sacra 137:547:252

We are Coming!

During the American Civil War, General William T. Sherman was driving his troops on his decisive march to the sea. He had left behind in a fort on Kennesaw Mountain a small contingent of men to guard the rations. General John Bell Hood of the Confederate Army attacked the fort, and a fierce battle followed. One-third of the men were killed or wounded, and J. M. Corse, the general in command, was severely injured in the fighting. Just as he was about to hoist up the white flag and surrender, a message came through the signal corps set up on a chain of mountains. General Sherman was within 15 miles of the fort and had sent the message: “Hold fast. We are coming.” Those few words so encouraged the defenders that they held on and kept the fort from falling into the hands of their attackers.

Our Heavenly Commander has also sent us the assurance that He is coming. The Lord Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2,3). The fact that our Savior is coming again gives us a special incentive in our service for Christ. It makes us want to stand our ground. It encourages us to continue fighting the good fight of faith. It assures us of victory. Fierce as the battle may rage and difficult as the conflict may be as we serve Him, let’s never give up! Christ is coming again—perhaps today. Let’s hold the fort! - R.W.D.

Our Daily Bread, January 24

Ceaseless Activity

I wonder what God would say to us today as He sees all of our so-called Christian organizations in ceaseless activity but no action—motion but no movement. The burgeoning building program proclaiming astronomical figures in cost and “people reached” is indeed impressive. The mushroom growth of both churches ad organizations would seem to indicate a healthy condition. The polls which give such a large percentage of evangelicals would appear to be a sign that we are marching to Zion. But before we sing “Onward Christian Soldiers,” let’s find out how many are marching. We are not even standing on the promises; we are sitting on the premises! We are not stalwart soldiers of the faith. We are paper dolls playing church in our bigger and better sanctuaries. We are seeking entertainment, not instruction or inspiration in our smug complacency. We do not have a vision or concern for a lost world out there that has not even heard the Word of God.

Miscellaneous writings of Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Either Hot or Cold

I like soup when it is piping hot and a soft drink when it is icy cold. I can’t stand either one lukewarm. Jesus has the same attitude toward people who profess to be His children. He detests lukewarmness. He said He wished they would be either hot or cold.

Now, why would Jesus prefer cold to lukewarmness? If we understand the term cold to mean hostility toward the gospel, we must conclude that Jesus would rather see a person an antagonist than a halfhearted follower. But that explanation seems doubtful.

I don’t believe Jesus preferred hostility to half-heartedness. Some scholars suggest that He may have been thinking about two springs near Laodicea—the hot mineral springs at Hierapolis and the pure cold water springs in Colossae. The hot springs were seen as possessing healing powers. The cold, invigorating springs provided refreshment. The Christians in the church at Laodicea brought neither healing to the spiritually ill not refreshment to the weary. They were lukewarm, and therefore of no help to anyone.

You and I must ask ourselves these questions: Do I provide refreshment to the spiritually weary by bringing them encouragement, joy, and hope? Do I bring healing by challenging the careless, correcting the erring, and rousing the indifferent? Remember, we can’t help anybody if we are lukewarm. The Lord wants us either hot or cold—whatever the need may require. - H.V.L.

Our Daily Bread, January 16

$3 Worth of God

I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.

Wilbur Rees, from When I Relax I Feel Guilty by Tim Hansel

Resource

• Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, pp. 81ff

Singing in Heaven

There was a Wesleyan preacher in England, Peter Mackenzie, full of native humor, a most godly man. He was once preaching from the text: “And They Sang a New Song,” and he said: “Yes, there will be singing in heaven, and when I get there I will want to have David with his harp, and Paul, and Peter and other saints gather around for a sing. And I will announce a hymn from the Wesleyan Hymnal. ‘Let us sing hymn No. 749:’

My God, my Father, while I stray —
“But some one will say, ‘That won’t do. You are in heaven,
Peter; there’s no straying here.’ And I will say,
‘Yes, that’s so. Let us sing No. 651 —’

Though waves and storms go o’er my head,
Though friends be gone and hoped be dead —
“But another saint will interrupt, ‘Peter, you forget you are in heaven now;
there are no storms here.’ ‘Well, I will try again, No. 536 —’

Into a world of ruffians sent —
“‘Peter! Peter!’ someone will say, ‘we will put you out unless you stop giving
out inappropriate hymns.’ I will ask—what can we sing? And they will say:
“‘Sing the new song, the song of Moses and the Lamb.’”

Moody’s Anecdotes, p. 7

Resource

• Biblical Sermons, H. W. Robinson, Baker, 1989, p. 239

Resource

• Zane Hodges, The Hungry Inherit, p. 123

General MacArthur

From 1942 to 1945, General Douglas MacArthur served as the commander of Allied forces in the Pacific. When it became clear in 1942 that Bataan, the last American foothold in the Philippines, would fall to the Japanese, President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave. As he left on March 11 MacArthur uttered his famous promise, “I shall return.” And he did—in October of 1944.

Today in the Word, June, 1990, p. 45

Resource

• Zane Hodges, The Hungry Inherit, p. 123