Overcoming – Four Principles in Revelation 12 (Part 4)

 

“And they overcame him because the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.” Revelation 12:11.

 

Continuing from the last post, what is “the word of their testimony”? There are likely a number of ways to express the answer but let me suggest that all of the Biblical answers contain three dimensions to them.

 

Let’s again note that in the beginning of Revelation John is “on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9). Also in 1:2 we read that John, “testified to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The word of God and the testimony of Jesus are inextricably intertwined, in fact, they are one and the same for the Word of God is the testimony of the Father, indeed, of the Trinity, and Jesus Christ came to earth to testify of the Father, indeed, to testify to the Trinity.

 

We begin with the testimony of Jesus, for our testimony must be His testimony in that we must first and always proclaim what Jesus says about Himself. His testimony is twofold, there is that which the incarnational Jesus says about Himself (think of the Gospels) and then that which the Scripture says about Jesus (think from Genesis through Revelation). Since the Word is the Word is the Word, and the Word is Whom we term the Second Person of the Trinity (may God assist us to know Him in His mystery), then we may come to a place where we see no distinction between the testimony of Jesus in the Gospels and His testimony in the rest of Scripture – which is as it should be as Christ Jesus radiates from the entire Bible (Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39).

 

The Gospel of John is especially helpful in this regard as we consider, “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…No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:14, 18). Throughout this Gospel (and of course the other three Gospels) Jesus faces opposition to His testimony (John 5:18; 6:42; 8:48; 10:33).

 

As we see Jesus in the Gospels we see both what His testimony is and how He remained faithful to that testimony; we see our Example, our Pattern; for as the Father sent Jesus into the world, so Jesus sends us into the world (John 17:18; 20:21). As Jesus testifies to the Father, so are we to testify to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We must know Jesus in His Word if we are to testify to that Word. We must not be ashamed of Jesus and His words (Mark 8:38) if Jesus is not to be ashamed of us.

 

While our personal testimony has its place, it is not first place – first place must always be what God in Christ says about Himself, second place is what the Church (the Body of Christ) through the ages testifies of and to Jesus Christ (as expressed in the Nicene Creed), and third place is our personal testimony (as members of His Body). As we follow on to know Christ the unity of koinonia may make these somewhat indistinguishable, but let our lives always be centered in the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

 

What is the testimony of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John? What does Jesus Christ say about Himself? For example, does He speak of Himself as the Light of the world? What does He say about Himself and those who desire to come to the Father?

 

What is the testimony of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John? What is your answer? By the grace of God, what complete answer can you give? Share it with someone. 

 

We’ll continue this focus on testimony in the next post.

Blessed Eternal Portal

This past Wednesday night a dear friend's father went to be with Christ; both of her parents had covid-19; her mother is having a difficult recovery. I heard the news on Thursday morning. As I contemplated this passing from the earthly to the heavenly, this is what I saw: 

Blessed Eternal Portal

 

Blessed Eternal Portal

Rooted on Calvary,

With arms outstretched

Beckoning me, embracing me.

 

O heavenly Tree I come to you,

Stained as you are

I come as I am,

For my Assurance is the Lamb.

 

Offered on you,

Tree and altar

In which He comes to me,

And I come to Him.

 

Doorway into heavenly realms

Celestial anthems calling me,

I must go now,

“Dear Daughter, I Iove you.”

 

What is this? Jesus is not sitting at the Father’s right hand.

No, O my! He is standing with arms outstretched

Welcoming me…

Through the Blessed Portal of the Cross.

Overcoming – Four Principles in Revelation 12 (Part 3)

 

“And they overcame him because the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even unto death.” Revelation 12:11.

 

What is “the word of their testimony”? In one sense the book of Revelation is a book of witnessing, of testimony. It is a wonderful manual on witnessing. Consider how the book begins: “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, even to all that he saw.”

 

Then we have 1:9, “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and the kingdom and the perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

 

Let’s then look at how the book concludes: “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you…I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book…He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” (Rev. 22:16 – 20).

 

John is testifying, Jesus is testifying, and we see in the following passages that the people of Christ are testifying:

 

“When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained” (6:9).

 

“When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them” (11:7).

 

“So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (12:17).

 

“Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (19:10).

 

But there is still more, for let’s not forget that our word “martyr” in English is “witness” in Greek, and while we use the word “martyr”, in its Christian context, to refer to someone who dies for Christ, in its Biblical context it can mean not only someone who dies for Christ, such as Stephen or Antipas, but also one who is a witness for the truth of God in Christ. For example, in Revelation we see Jesus Christ as a “faithful witness” (1:5); Antipas, “My witness, My faithful one who was killed” (2:13); Jesus Christ as “the faithful and true Witness” (3:14); “My two witnesses” (11:3); “the witnesses of Jesus” (17:6).

 

The point in all of this is that we might “see” the overwhelming theme of “witness” and “testimony” (interchangeable words in English for the same NT Greek word) in the book of Revelation. And yet there is more, for if we consider the storyline of Revelation we see that within its central message of the unveiling of Jesus Christ, that there is the theme of faithfulness to Jesus Christ and His testimony in the midst of tribulation and intense opposition. In the Gospels we see that Jesus Christ maintained His testimony to the Father unto death (see especially the Gospel of John where Jesus’s confession of the Father is relentlessly attacked), and in Revelation we are taught that we are to maintain our testimony to Jesus even unto death (“As the Father has sent me, so I send you”). Revelation is written, in part, to equip us to not simply hold fast our testimony of Jesus, but to proclaim that witness even unto death.

 

The book of Revelation, a letter to the Church, was not written to satisfy our desires for special knowledge of the future, it was not written to cater to our fanciful speculations; it was written to reveal Jesus Christ, to equip us to be witnesses as Jesus is a witness, and to help us see reality as it really is; to see the Kingdom for what it is and the world for what it is.

 

We’ll pick the “the word of their testimony” back up in the next post in this series.

 

 

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (12)

 “Who, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:3.

 

Continuing with the following passage by Murray in our last post:

 

“Christ seated on the throne in heaven means our being actually brought, in the supernatural power which the coming down of the Holy Spirit supplies, into God’s holy presence, and living there our daily life…It is so much easier to take in the doctrine of a Substitute and an atonement, of repentance and pardon, than of a High Priest bringing us into God’s presence, and keeping us in loving communion with Him.”

 

“Let no one think that I speak of what is too high. I speak of what is your heritage and destiny. The same share you have in Jesus on the cross, you have in Jesus on the throne. Be ready to sacrifice the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will; and Christ in heaven will prove in you the reality and the power of His heavenly priesthood.”

 

Why is it that so many of us have a watered-down view of our life in Christ and His life in us? Why is it that many of us expect little from Christ in terms of an overcoming life? A life that gives to others? A life steeped in His Word? Joy in prayer and communion with Him? I suppose every New Testament letter speaks to this; and let’s not forget that Revelation is also a letter.

 

So many times we think, “Well, people like Murray, or like Paul, or Peter, or St. Francis, or Augustine, they are a “special” type of Christian, and the mountains they scale are simply too high for most of us.” This is simply not Biblical, it is simply not true. We make our excuses for living the way we do and perhaps take comfort in our collective denial of the completeness of the work of Jesus Christ and of the depths of His love for us. 

There is a sense in which the overcoming life is not about us, not one ounce about us; it is about Jesus Christ and His glory, it is about all things being wrapped up in Him (Eph. 1:10); it is about our confession and testimony being to His eternal glory. His (and our) Father is glorified when we bear much fruit (John 15:8), and yet we learn that in and of ourselves we cannot bear fruit, we can do nothing (John 15:4 – 5).

 

On one end of the spectrum we have the arrogance of the “health and wealth” and “name it and claim it” Gospel which is no Biblical Gospel. On the other end we have the “I’m just a poor rotten sinner and I’ll never know the reality of a life that is complete in Him, resting in Him, overcoming in Him.” There is a sense in which both of these ways of thinking are man-centered and not Christocentric – they both look at us and our experience rather than Christ and the completeness of His glorious Atonement.

 

In Christ, we have a “heritage and destiny” that calls us to be “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” We are no longer in Adam, we are now in Christ. Our source of life is no longer of this earth, it is now, in Christ, in the heavens. We no longer identify with the first man Adam, we now find ourselves in the Second Man, Jesus Christ. Sadly, it is probably fair to say that most professing – Christians live with a case of mistaken identity, they do not see themselves as the daughters and sons of the Living God; this is akin to the people of Israel with Moses thinking they were still slaves to the Egyptians – worshipping a beast of burden who feeds off the grass, the flesh. Why are we exchanging the glory of the Living God for images of ourselves and creation? Images of our own making?

 

“Be ready to sacrifice the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will; and Christ in heaven will prove in you the reality and the power of His heavenly priesthood.”

 

So much of our preaching and teaching is focused on the earthly life, not our “life on earth” but rather our “live of the earth and the world system.” This emphasis on ourselves, rather than on Christ, it about as far away from the Bible and the Gospel as we can get – it is really a continuous replaying of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a replaying of the serpent’s question, “Did God really say this?” Sadly, this thinking characterizes much of the American church.

 

Consider Jesus’ call to self-denial in Mark 34 – 38. Instead of asking the question on behalf of Jesus, “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”, we focus on making our souls independent and strong – thereby avoiding the cross that Jesus calls us to take up as we follow Him.

 

Think about John’s straightforward teaching that we are not to love the world (system) or the things in the world system, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” (1 John 2:15 – 17). Also, note that the context of this passage includes the antichrist, to embrace the love of the world-system is akin to embracing the antichrist. “But it looks so good. What can be the harm?” Of course it can look good, “…for even Satan disguises himself as a angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).

 

Are we “sacrificing the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will…”?

 

Consider God’s call to us to present ourselves as holy and living sacrifices, not being conformed to the world, but being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; 12:1 – 2).

 

Dear friends, Jesus Christ sanctified Himself for our sakes, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19). Paul wrote that, “I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

 

Are we setting our lives apart from the world, from the present age, and dedicating them to God for His glory and the salvation of others? Let us be clear, we are called in Christ, and by Christ, to a life of holiness; holiness with its dual meaning of dedication to God and a life of purity unto God. If we would know the glory of the ascended Christ and the treasures of His throne room, we cannot live as double-mined people, we cannot live with part of our heart in this age and the other in the coming age; we cannot live as dual citizens of this age and of the Kingdom of the heavens. The Gospel is unequivocal on this, Christ is unequivocal – to surrender to Jesus Christ means that our lives are no longer our own – we now belong to Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ gave all of Himself to us and for us; are we giving all of ourselves to Him and for Him?

 

Psalm 23 and Incarnational Mission

 If, “Even as the Father sent Me, so also I send you,” (John 20:21; 17:18), then certainly as the LORD is our Shepherd we are called, in Christ, to be a shepherd to others; individually and especially as His Body.

 

When the world looks at us, does it see the Father? Does it see the Good Shepherd living His Life in and through His Body? Are we leading others into places of peace? Are we walking with others through the valley of the shadow of death? Are we preparing tables for others?

 

To be sure, the crucifixion of Psalm 22 precedes Psalm 23; do we love our Lord Jesus? Will we embrace His Cross and the rejection associated with it? When we know the koinonia of His sufferings we are better able to walk with others through the valley of the shadow of death – for we have been there before.

 

We are called to be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth so that we may be the mature sons and daughters of the Living God (Matthew 5:43 – 48). Is this not a grand time to learn the ways of our Father and our Lord Jesus?

 

Psalm 23 is, among other things, a call to Incarnational Mission. What does this look like in my life? In your life? In the lives of our congregations?

 

Sheep or Wolves?

 “As long as we remain sheep, we overcome. Even though we may be surrounded by a thousand wolves, we overcome and are victorious. But as soon as we are wolves, we are beaten: for then we lose the support from the Shepherd who feeds not wolves, but only sheep.”

— John Chrysostom