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Tag: Revelation

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John

  • Do not lose heart over tribulations & sufferings – 2

    Paul’s encouragement for the church at Ephesus

    ‘Faint not at my tribulations or do not ‘lose heart over what I am suffering for you.’  The Apostle Paul writes these words differing some by translation [KJV or ESV].

    διὸ αἰτοῦμαι μὴ ἐκκακεῖν ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσίν μου ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν ἥτιςἐστὶν δόξα ὑμῶν – Ephesians 3:13

    Do you lose heart when you or a loved one suffers? Do you faint at the thought of a loved one experiencing tribulations before their death?

    Most of us have at least one hurting loved one who comes to mind. A leader esteemed by like-minded followers does not want them to give up over any trial he must endure. Understand Paul’s heart is compassion for his followers.

    Tribulations θλῖψις

    Paul’s choice of words from the Greek, thlipsis, paints familiar imagery to those who suffer. He chooses a metaphor for oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits; the picture of a pressing, pressing together or pressure. We recognize the tension of relationship when one suffers and another can do nothing about it.

    Paul and the Apostles knew the pressure and persecution, as did the saints of the church. In fact, Jesus had used the same word of prophesy to the Apostles before His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Our Lord tells of the signs of the end of the age.

    Prophesy of Christ Jesus

    Matthew 24:

    9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

    Fellow believer and saint, do you sense this in these last days? What encouragement for the saints of the church of Ephesus at the beginning of these last days!

    Jesus continues with the description a great tribulation:

    21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

    Therefore, do not lose heart.

    Paul, Peter, John, even our Lord Jesus Christ have written what must take place. Returning to Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, let’s close with the encouragement of his meaning.

    ‘Wherefore I desire that ye faint not… Ephesians 3:13a KJV

    And what is it to faint from an enormous undertaking of faith? Faint ἐκκακέω  ekkakeō – to be utterly spiritless, to be wearied out, exhausted.

    Does this describe your battle? Paul, the one who has suffered for his witness of Christ calls on the saints of Ephesus to faint not. In Christ we must persevere, winning over the defeat of sin, suffering and death. Our suffering indeed becomes our glory through the Lord. Paul goes on to urge us to prayer.

    Jesus speaks of it as well, adding in the same way that we must faint not and calling us to prayer.

    Tribulations and the Dishonest Judge

    Luke 17:33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

    [ctt title=”And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” tweet=”And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” coverup=”9eI20″]

    2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

    3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

    4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”

    6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

    7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?

    8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

    Our glory in Christ

    When Jesus comes, will he find faith on earth? Will Christ find faith in Ephesus or in your city? Surely the Lord has declared your tribulations and suffering will come to an end.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 21:3-5a [KJV]

    And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,

    Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,

    and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

    And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,

    neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

    And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

    [ctt title=”Beloved saint, do not lose heart over tribulations and sufferings. For the Lord redeems His own and the glory of the Lord reigns forever.” tweet=”Beloved saint, do not lose heart over tribulations and sufferings. For the Lord redeems His own and the glory of the Lord reigns forever.” coverup=”EbKeq”]

    Amen.

     

     

     

     

  • Swords & Sickles

    Swords & Sickles

    Proclaim this among the nations:
    Consecrate for war;
        stir up the mighty men.
    Let all the men of war draw near;
        let them come up.

    Beat your plowshares into swords,blacksmith-hammer
        and your pruning hooks into spears;
        let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

    Joel 3:9-10

    Consecrate them, says the LORD! Yes. It is a holy war – war between the Lord God and those who hold to their sins, following idols, false prophets, foolish sages and lying leaders.

    What has been will be and what has never before been seen will blind the eyes of the nations.

    Joel 3:sickle

    13 Put in the sickle,  
        for the harvest is ripe.

    Go in, tread,
        for the winepress is full.
    The vats overflow,
        for their evil is great.

    14 Multitudes, multitudes,
        in the valley of decision!
    For the day of the Lord is near
        in the valley of decision.

    syria-kurdish-fighter-destroyed-city

    Borders and Nations Destroyed

    By what proxy have the nations divided Tyre and Sidon to the spoils of nations beyond the valley of destruction?

    Have the people not fled for their lives by land and by sea to places where they remain an enemy?

    Though you rebuild fallen towers and repair the breach of five-walled fortresses, refugees will yet invade your borderless regions. Their helpless will expose the evil of princes; their plight unveils the nakedness of greed.

    Has anything changed? Are these last times so different than the demise of the godless in the days of Joel?

    Six centuries later Peter would preach the words of Joel’s prophesy fulfilled by the Holy Spirit speaking through a few Apostles heard by the crowd in many languages. [Acts 2:16-21] The last days have begun, Peter preaches, with the incarnation of Christ Jesus and the Lord’s crucifixion for our sins and His resurrection and ascension to the Throne of the LORD!

    It is the Lamb of God who will judge. He was not a sword-wielding conquering King, general or prophet. God’s own compassion for the nations sacrificed the promised king of the jews as full payment for our sins, even the sins of His own enemies.

    The Rumblings of Peace

    One of the Apostles of Jesus lived to see Jerusalem fall once more under the domination of Rome. John wrote letters of love to the churches of Asia (modern day Turkey). Then as the last living Disciple prophesy came to John.

    Rome has since fallen. A false prophet emerged from a cave to conquer the continents. Wars to end all wars. Emperors and dictators and despots have risen with sword and perished in humiliation. Even Israel is replanted after shameful killings of the remnant.

    Only the message of the Lamb remains viable – a call to repentance and redemption in the blood of love, rather than the blood of war. Like in times before the falls of the mighty some claim peace, but it is war they invite. It is the Lord who will judge. Hear the Truth of these last days:

    Revelation 6:1-8 excerpt

    1. And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
    2. And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
    3. And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.
    4. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
    4-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse
    And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

    Death Tolls of War

    • Current estimate of the population of the earth: 7,404,976,783
      • a fourth of the earth killed = 1,851,244,195
      • 9/11 Death toll           = 2,996
      • 2016 Migrant deaths = 4,310 of 243,000+ war refugees
      • Syrian war deaths      = c.300,000-400,000
      • Abortion deaths         = 40,000,000 – 50,000,000
      • WWII deaths              = 50,000,000 – 80,000,000
    • The current combined populations of China, Russia and the US = 1,831,278,025

    I am not suggesting that these three empires will be those destroyed in the end. The number of souls tormented and killed on the earth will exceed the total number of people living in these three earthly super-powers!

    Our sin is rampant! The judgment of evil is inevitable.

    The Lamb of God IS and will be, forever, Lord and Savior!

    He did not come to the world with a sword of power or a sickle to reap the riches of other lands. No, Christ Jesus came into the world as a Lamb of sacrifice for our sins. He will return on the clouds as John as prophesied.

    Revelation 6:

    9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice,

    “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

    11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

  • Seven Seals

    Seven Seals

    A scroll or proclamation sealed by the One of Authority

    Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. – Revelation 5:1

    The King James Version of the Bible uses the word ‘book’ in the place of scroll and interestingly enough you may recognize its importance from the original Greek: βιβλίον – biblion from the Greek root biblos.

    The Apostle John, exiled to the island of Patmos, survives the other eleven martyred for their faith, and receives a book of prophecy from the risen Lord. A few years prior to John’s apocalypse Rome had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

    An Ancient Sealed Prophesy

    Seven centuries prior to this witness of John, the prophet Isaiah had correctly predicted an earlier fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC.

    Isaiah 29:

    9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished;
    blind yourselves and be blind!
    Be drunk, but not with wine;
    stagger, but not with strong drink!
    10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
    a spirit of deep sleep,
    and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
    and covered your heads (the seers).

    11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.

    חָתַם סֵפֶר

    When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

    The Lamb of God

    John had witnessed Christ Jesus slain on a cross. He was the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world; yet three days later and for many days John witnessed the risen Christ! Jesus was about thirty years old, but John was even younger. Hundreds of jews and gentiles saw the risen Lord, who previously had told the Apostles of His return.

    Now John is an old man (even by modern standards). The Lord gives John a vision, just as the Lord has previously uncovered a certain future to His Prophets centuries before Christ.

    John’s apocalypse shows events of a Day to come .. a day of wrath and a day of justice.

    ἀποκάλυψις

     

    Revelation 5:2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

    9 And they sang a new song, saying,

    “Worthy are you to take the scroll
        and to open its seals,
    for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
        from every tribe and language and people and nation,
    10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
        and they shall reign on the earth.”

    Revelation 6:

    The Seven Seals

    6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder,“Come!”

    3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”

    And again with the third and the fourth seal. “Come!”

    The breaking of each seal introduces a horse of a different color. Did you know this scriptural source of this familiar expression?

    Read in Christ’s revelation to John the fearful imagery of these riders; for the deceiver leads the world to see these foretold truths of that Day as highly imaginable fantasy, when in truth, the wrath of that terrible terrible Day should bring a quaking of terror into unrepentant hearts of the living and souls of the dead.

    9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

    12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth…

    Read it for yourself, you who fear Almighty God!

    Revelation 7:

    4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

    A Great Multitude from Every Nation

    A seventh seal is yet to be opened…


    When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. –

    Revelation 8:1

    Christ the Lamb looks to you

    • Is reverence for the Lord an attribute of your life; do you show any respect for the deserved honor of the Living God?
    • Does your heart consider deserved repercussions of your sin?
    • Is your arrogance before the risen and living Son of righteous the foolishness of fallen angels who have told adam’, “You will be as gods, knowing good and evil?” Genesis 3:5

    Are you a god, failing flesh with mortal soul?

    Or does your own sin convict you of your many failings?

    Repent! While it is yet today.

    For the Day will surly come when seven seals will be broken and the judgments of God proclaimed before all souls – souls saved and souls condemned.

    To which side will the Lord separate your eternal soul?

    Read the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John and be blessed.