Author: SFJ Bible

Revelation 5

The Scroll and the Lamb

5:1 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. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 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.”

11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,

  “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
  to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
  and honor and glory and blessing!”

13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

  “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
  be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

(ESV)

Revelation 4

The Throne in Heaven

4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings¹ and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

  “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11   “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
  for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

Footnotes

[1] 4:5 Or voices, or sounds

(ESV)

Going Deeper

On Fire for Jesus (7-11-15)

Grab your Bible, and let’s go deeper into Revelation 3:

We can learn much from the words of exhortation given to the church in Laodicea.

Revelation 3:14-19 And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. 15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

1. No Such Thing as a Lukewarm Christian

In

Revelation 4:15-16

11   “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
  for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

(ESV)

, strong words are given for the person who claims Christ but is not truly sold out for Him.

The reality is, the saved will be sanctified in the Refining Fire of God. The saved will surrender their will for the will of their Master.  The saved will give up their comforts for the joy to follow Jesus’ example of daily crucifixion.

For the true Christian, dying to self is both a one-time event and a lifelong process.

Luke 9:23 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

When Christ died on the cross for sinners, He not only stood in my place, doing what I never could do (forgiving my sin), but He also showed me what I must do as a follower of Him, namely, take up my own cross and join Him on the Calvary road of death to self.

Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Jesus spoke repeatedly to His disciples about taking up their cross (an instrument of death) and following Him. He made it clear that if any would follow Him, they must deny themselves, which means giving up their lives- spiritually, symbolically, and even physically- if necessary.

We are called to not be cold… Not even be warm… but to be on Fire. To walk daily in His Refining FIRE!

A proclaiming Christian who wants to avoid the Refining Fire of God is greatly compromising the very essence of his/her testimony of what it means to be saved and sanctified in Jesus Christ.

This is the person who loves the fire of salvation in order to avoid the fire of eternity but is not a fan of the fire of sanctification that is the call of Christ on our lives.   The Bible says, one is the result of the other. You cannot have one without the other.

Chew on this with me: Christ died to save us from hell but not to save us from the cross.

He died so that we could be glorified, but not to keep us from being crucified.

When you look at a Cross as a believer, it should bring two very important things to mind:

1. Jesus died in your place, a gift that you did not earn and for which you will forever praise Him.
2. Jesus died in your place to give you the power to die to yourself every day and glorify Him.

The Christian life is one of crucifixion.

The cross of Christ is not merely a past place of substitution. It is also a present place of daily execution.

We must never let the cross lose its crucifying power in our lives!

When we do, we start to become LUKEWARM; saying with our mouths that we love Jesus but the evidence of a life sold out for Him is not real.  Is the Fire of God evident in your marriage, in your parenting, in your working, in your handling of money, in your diet, in your interaction with your enemies?

The great tragedy of much modern Christianity is that the cross is something that happened “back then.”

I think it was Piper who once said, “We shame the cross of Christ when we think the cross means Jesus was soaked in blood so that I can now soak in a Jacuzzi.”

This is the demise of the Life Changing Gospel into a commonly acceptable form of the prosperity gospel.

The cross is not merely a past place of substitution; it is also a present place of daily execution: the execution of pride, of boasting in men, of self-reliance, of the love of money and status, and the praise of men.

Luke 14:27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

The Scriptures teach if you are reborn, your life is a life of surrender.

This is the life of crucifixion. You are on Fire for God and as a result, every part of your life is His.

This is a huge reality check for the redeemed: to give up your grip on the temporary for the sake of the eternal. To have a rightly placed priority on our stuff, our comfort and our loved ones so that in everything we do, we show that Christ is our greatest treasure. This leads us to the next verses of Revelation 3.

2. Refined by Holy Fire

In Revelation 3:17-18, we see a call to embrace the refining Fire of God for the sake of replacing the old things we once treasured for real and lasting satisfaction in God.

It says, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”

To better understand this look at:

Malachi 3:2-3 For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.

The Hebrew word here for refiner expresses the melting, testing, and refining of something, mostly metals, and especially precious metals such as gold and silver.

In the ancient world, crude metal was re-melted to remove impurities and to make metal castings (tools, weapons, images, etc.). The metal was heated in pottery crucibles (Pr. 17:3; 27:21), ovens or hearths, and bellows were often used to provide a draft to create intense heat.

The Scriptures speak of God as the master-refiner seeking the pure metal by trying and testing the heart of man.

God’s intention is not only to save His people but to purify His people from sin as the removal of dross and alloy.

Isaiah 1:25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.

In 1 Peter 1:7, the refining of gold is used as a metaphor for the stronger faith that emerges after persecution.

So, a refiner’s fire’s purpose is to “PURIFY” something of value.  It purifies by removing the impurities so that its value is greater to the owner as it becomes a more righteous treasure.

God’s purpose is to purify His people by His refining fire so that we are vessels of worship made more and more into Christ likeness that is pleasing to God.  2 Cor 2:15 says, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God…”

3. The Loving Discipline of Our Father

Lastly, Revelation 3:19 says, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

This is similar to what we read in Hebrews 12:5-6 which says, “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.’”

In

Revelation 4:5

5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings¹ and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God,

Footnotes

[1] 4:5 Or voices, or sounds

(ESV)

, it says we are a part of God’s Fatherly care; we are sons and daughters.

Our Father disciplines us because He loves us!

Now, our English understanding of discipline is punishment, which is not the right picture here.

The key is to look deeper at the word Discipline. The Greek word is Paideia.

It is where we get our word Pediatrics!

What is a Pediatrician’s primary concern?   He is concerned with the overall health of the child.

This is what God is to us!  God is the perfect parent, who brings non–destructive designed pain into a child’s life to grow him/her and propel him/her forward for his/her overall good.

We need to understand God disciplines us for our good and so we can grow in holiness.

What this is telling us is to EDURE OUR HARDSHIPS as Paideia!

Paideia =  God’s perfect loving discipline that grows us to His holiness and by which others taste His love by witnessing our Christ-filled response to our hardship.

In this, He is growing us from selfishness into the Fruit of the Spirit.

Hebrews 12:11 says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Here, the Greek word for trained is gymnazo. It is where we get our word Gymnasium.

We must understand that God puts hardships and opposition in our lives to refine us, to shape us, to mold us, to discipline us, to train us, so we wouldn’t just be Luke Warm.

So we can be on fire and dedicated to Him.

Your doctor will tell you that you need to work your muscles and exercise.

Do you realize what exercise is?  Why do many of you HATE IT?

Exercise is taking a muscle and exerting it, stretching it, tearing it, hurting it, and by this you strengthen it. Exercise is opposition.  It is stress on your body.

When you work out, your muscles do not feel like they are getting strong; you feel like you are getting weaker at first. Your muscles feel like mush, like spaghetti, RIGHT?

But this is how we grow. God’s loving discipline in our lives is a vital component to our being on fire and healthy spiritually for His purposes for us.

– I pray that we would not be Luke Warm, that we would pick up our cross daily and embrace a daily crucifixion of our flesh unto the sanctifying growth God wants to do in us.

-I pray we embrace God’s perfect refining fire, by which He molds us and purifies us.

-I pray we embrace the discipline of the Lord unto stronger spiritual muscles and a radical life for Christ.

– I pray that you would “be zealous and repent” – Revelation 3:19.

Let’s not settle for LUKEWARM LIVING, or LUKEWARM MINSITRY- Let’s be on Fire for Jesus.

Let’s be Soldiers who get bloody for our King, our bloodied Champion, Jesus Christ.

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

Soldiers for Jesus MC

National Chaplain

Revelation 3

To the Church in Sardis

3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Philadelphia

7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

To the Church in Laodicea

14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.

15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

(ESV)

Revelation 2

To the Church in Ephesus

2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

To the Church in Smyrna

8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

9 “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander¹ of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

To the Church in Pergamum

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith² even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

To the Church in Thyatira

18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

19 “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule³ them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Footnotes

[1] 2:9 Greek blasphemy

[2] 2:13 Or your faith in me

[3] 2:27 Greek shepherd

(ESV)