We often associate apocalypse with the dramatic catastrophic events of the Book of Revelation from the Bible. To begin with a definition, note that an apocalypse is not necessarily an unseen disaster (although it may be for some).
laying bare, making naked
a disclosure of truth, instruction
manifestation, appearance
In this case: ‘the revelation‘ or disclosure of Truth, instruction by the Lord Jesus, various appearances of awe-filled scenes taking place in heaven — ALL lay bare to the eyes of mankind the wrath of the Judgement to come upon all the Creation of Almighty GOD!
Revelation
Apocalypse is also the hopeful good word used in the Gospel of Luke by a first century prophet at the Temple of the Jews revealing the child Jesus as their Messiah or the Christ.
A LIGHT FOR REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
Luke 2:32 – prophesy of Simeon about Jesus
Christians and unbelievers alike are familiar with it as the title of the last book of the Holy Bible. From the Latin of ancient Rome:
apocalypsis Iesu Christi
Other versions or translations from Greek:
Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
The Revelation from Jesus Christ
The Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah
So whatever section of Revelation you read remember this:
Revelation is NOT bad news about the end of Creation, but Gospel GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior sent in the flesh to a world of sinners.
Roger Harned + talk of Jesus {dot}.com
The Apostle John, who witnessed many miracles of the Lord God, falls prostrate is AWE before these visions laid bare to his mortal eyes. John subsequently obediently begins Christ’s disclosure to the saints of the churches, seven specific first century churches & faithful worshipers of this 21st century day:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.
apokalypsis of THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Christ Born & Witnessed, Crucified, Risen, Ascended..
It’s really easy to hear someone’s story of a baby born in a manger during the census of Augustus Caesar.
The Babe in a manger (and His mother) have become our iconic emojis of virtue.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com– on Christmas traditions replacing the significance of Christ’s Resurrection
The Witness of Thomas
Imagine what Thomas must have pondered before he saw Jesus once more..
His miracles were authentic. He was a man like us, yet so unlike us.
We discovered many times that the Lord Jesus was more than any man we had ever met, even John the Baptist..
Like when He calmed the raging Sea of Tiberius, fed thousands and especially when Jesus healed the sick and even raising some like Lazarus just recently from the grave.
But we witnessed also the defeat of Israel’s Messiah, our only hope — His rejection by our own Jewish leaders and Rome’s cruel sentence of His death on a cross, mocking our Rabbi as “Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
I wasn’t close for His execution, for I was afraid like all the others; but Jesus is certainly dead as any other nailed to a Roman Cross.
This is the witness of Jews who had hoped that Jesus would restore the Kingdom of Israel.
(Translations incl. Complete Jewish Bible)
All of the Twelve were born as Jews, as was the Lord Jesus (Yeshua).
24 Now T’oma [Didymus in common Greek] (the name means “twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Yeshua came.
When the other talmidim [disciples] told him,
“We have seen the Lord,”
he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger into the place where the nails were and put my hand into his side,
I refuse to believe it.”
Believe it .. or not
Well there it is: Like what happens so frequently, someone else tells us about the biggest event ever in their lives.. AND we missed it. Just like Thomas, we weren’t there.
I either don’t believe them, pause with the uncertainty of doubt .. OR maybe I find it beyond belief that the Lord did not also choose ME to be part of such a life-changing moment.
Perhaps you and I are not so unlike ‘doubting Thomas’ as we would like to believe.
A timely note about time:
Even though we've slowed the actual timeline of events between Jesus raising Lazarus and His own Resurrection,I will not delay John's Gospel an additional weekto reflect real time. RH
26 Eight days later His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst..
Although the doors were locked, Yeshua came, stood among them and said, “Shalom aleikhem!”
27 Then he said to T’oma, “Put your finger here, look at my hands, take your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be lacking in trust, but have trust!”
Witnessed Crucified; Witnessed Risen
Thomas finally experiences the risen Christ Jesus the slain Messiah of Israel the same as the other Apostles and the women who saw Him first.
Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
John 20:27 NKJV
28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Depicting Christ Crucified and Jesus Risen to Life!
The scene of Thomas witnessing the wounds of the Risen Messiah, Jesus, their friend and their Teacher is beyond illustration.
John must have recalled Jesus’ similar approach to Martha just before the Lord raised her brother Lazarus to life.
“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus had asked the bereaved sister of Lazarus. “Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26 excerpt with context
Martha and Mary had mourned the death of their brother.
Mary the mother of Jesus also mourned helplessly. She could not save Him from suffering as she sorrowfully watched His death on a Cross nearby.
Faithful painters of the Renaissance could neither paint nor sculpt the horror of the Lord Jesus’s wounds.
Our focus draws to the hearts of the living rather than to the Redeemer of our lives.
Believe by faith
29 Jesus said [to Thomas, with all the Disciples present], “Because you have seen me, you have believed.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
By their witness and that of many others who had seen the risen Christ Jesus, many came to believe by the time John writes his Gospel, even many who would take up their cross to follow Him. These too the Apostle John would witness.
30 So then, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.
To be continued...
Next: We will return briefly to further witness of the Eleven near the conclusion of John's Gospel.
Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby they laid Jesus there.
Joseph rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – John 1:36
From the day the Son of Man is delivered into the world and laid in a manger the shadow of the Cross foretold Christ’s Sacrifice.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.. For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up..
– John 3:13 NASB
The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’?
Who is this Son of Man?”
John 12:34 NASB
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.
Now the body of the Son of Man lays lifeless and bloodied, partially wrapped in the shrouds of burial and entombed in darkness sealed away from the living by a guarded stone door.
“Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; And let the earth hear the words of my mouth! 2 May my teaching drip as the rain, My speech trickle as the dew, As droplets on the fresh grass, And as the showers on the vegetation. 3 For I proclaim the name of the Lord; Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and just is He. 5 They have acted corruptly against Him, They are not His children, because of their defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation. 6 Is this what you do to the Lord, You foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father who has purchased you? He has made you and established you.
“We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Gospel of John 1:45 NASB
The Pharisees had often come to Jesus before they crucified Him and now faithful men have laid their Messiah in a grave. Joseph, Nicodemus and a remnant of influential Jews believe and follow the Messiah secretly out of fear of their own lives.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
“I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves…
The Pharisees had tested Jesus. Yet most continued to give glory to each other rather than the Messiah who came to teach truth in their midst.
Jesus preached the truth of Scripture to the Jews who claimed to be teachers.
“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father;
the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
John 5: NASB
The Writings of Moshe
Deuteronomy 32: New American Standard Bible
.. And you drank wine of the blood of grapes..
18 You forgot the Rock who fathered you, And forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 “The Lord saw this, and spurned them Because of the provocation by His sons and daughters.
20 Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.
…
39 See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand. 40 Indeed, I raise My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever, 41 If I have sharpened My flashing sword, And My hand has taken hold of justice, I will return vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me.
20 The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.
33 The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don’t know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always..
45-46 All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his mitzvot and his statutes which he commanded you: and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.
“I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.
a resurrection of judgment…
“Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;
those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,
those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
The words of Jesus – John 5:28-29 NASB
As the crowds had approached Jerusalem for the seven-day celebration they laid palms before Jesus at the gates atop the holy hill.
Now as Jesus lay in the grave, His broken and bloodied Body partially prepared for burial, the public mourning of the faithful must wait for a sacred celebration of the final feast of pecach.
As Jesus lay on a slab of stone in a tomb sealed by a rock rolled before its entrance, faithful Jews knew well the curses of their own disobedience and separation from the Lord their God.
The Prophet Hosea (~755–710 B.C)
Hosea’s name means: salvation, as did that of Moses’ successor Joshua and as does that of the Son of Man known of Nazareth, Jesus.
After this day of irony in the festival feast would come the sorrowful day of mourning on the first day of the week.
Yet the words of Jesus before summoning Lazarus from the grave surly resounded in the hearts of their recent memory.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.
She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.” – John 11:27 Hebrew Names Version
The Silence of this Shabbat
There, as Jesus’ loved ones, family and followers mourned silently during the final feast of the Passover, the preparations of their hearts found no solace in His upcoming burial on the first day of the week.
For they had witnessedthe brutality of sin against the Sinless One on the Cross of Calvary.
The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. One who believes in the Son has eternal life,
but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
the Good News of John 3:35-36 Hebrew Names Version
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