Twitter
RSS
Facebook
ClickBank1

10/22/13. Revelation 1:1-8. Jesus Comes To Encourage – My devotional

10/22/13. Revelation 1:1-8. Jesus Comes To Encourage – My devotional

john

                                                                                                                 Kevin E Jesmer  10-22-13

Revelation 1:1-8

Key Verses: 5b, 6

“…To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (ESV)

Dear Jesus, thank you for granting me peace and the calm in the midst of the storms of life. Help me to serve you, in the strength that you give, so that your name may be proclaimed to all the earth. I thank you for providing heroes like the teacher in Nevada who lost his life intervening with the shooter. Comfort the teacher’s family and help them to overcome and be healed of the trauma of this event. Thank you for helping me to get a spot in the education session at the work. Now, I pray that your word may be embossed on my heart. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Part 1: Blessed Are Those Who Read (1-3).

Verses 1-3, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servantsthe things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

The words of this book were given by God to all believers to encourage them in times of suffering and persecution.

God encouraged his people. John the Apostle was in exile on the Island of Patmos. There he was an old man and he worked in the Roman quarries. He suffered a lot. But there were some rare times of freedom where he was allowed to worship the Lord. It was on one of these times of worship that Jesus sent his angel to his suffering servant John to show him what must take place. John testified in this book to what he saw–that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And this testimony became a wonderful encouragement to Christians who suffered for the sake of Christ, around the world for the last 2,000 years. In fact, a blessing is promised to those any who read this book, and a blessing to those who hear and take it to heart. John encourages us to pray to have faith to believe as we read this prophecy.

I thank God for helping us in our time of suffering. It is comforting and strengthening to know, through the word of God, that God cares and he understands and that is foretold that we will endure much suffering in this world. God provides the strength and the encouragement that we need through his word and his Spirit. I remember how I received some intense psychological and emotional persecution in the first five years of my life as a Christian. But every time I read my Bible, the word of God confirmed that what was happening was part of the normal Christian life and that he was with me. One word of God actually resounded in my heart in the midst of the persecution. It was Genesis 15:1, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” (ESV) I was encouraged by the word of God. I knew that though I was suffering inwardly, God was with me and that God himself was my reward. We need to be encouraged by the word of God each and every day. That is why daily Bible reading is so important. That is what daily bread devotionals are so important. I pray to stay close to the word of God as I live by faith in this world.

I also learn that God comes to his suffering people at the right time to encourage them at exactly the right time. John needed to be encouraged in his suffering. Jesus came to me at exactly the right time to encourage me at various times of my suffering. In this last event, when I fell into deep despair, God came to encourage me again and again. It was usually through the wise counsel of various servants of God. The counseling conformed to the Word of God in the Bible. The final breakthrough came with the words of the blind beggar in Luke 18:39b-42, “…But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” (ESV) At the “Weekend To Remember” I discovered that I was a sinner who was crying out for God’s mercy and I realized that Julie was a sinner who was also crying out for God’s mercy. We told God we wanted to love one another, become one in Christ, and break the impasse in our relationship. God did this for us. We made a new beginning together. The rest is history. God came through at the right time.

I am sure that God wants to encourage the struggling church in the Middle East and in Northern Africa and in the spiritually numbing cultures of the West. He is sending his angels to servants of God and giving the exact words of encouragement. We may not know everything that is going on, but we need to know that the living God is at work.

Part 2: Jesus, The Alpha and Omega (4-8).

     Verses 4-8, “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

I can see that John is very “Jesus-centered” in his encouraging the churches. He stuck to revealing who Jesus is, revealing his glory and his majesty. As the Alpha and Omega, Jesus is the beginning and the end. All things were made through him. He was and is and is to come. He is the faithful witness who died and rose and who will come again in clouds of glory. He loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood so that we may serve God as a kingdom of priests. (Ro 15:261Pe 2:9) Jesus assures us of the ultimate victory over those who oppose Him.

How easy it is to give humanistic words of encouragement, even when it clearly a lie. It is easier to give words of comfort without referring to Jesus or the Gospel. What about a person, who has stage 4 cancer that has spread to the lungs, bone and liver, and telling him that there is a hope to be cured and everything will be alright? Why not tell them about the Gospel of God’s forgiveness and eternal life in heaven with Jesus? What about a couple that have grown to hate each other and you tell them that everything will be OK and neglect telling them about Jesus and how the power of the Gospel can save their marriage? We must be Jesus centered in our encouraging of the church and of each other and not just give empty, clichés of encouragement. This takes great faith to step out and do so.

In encouraging others we need to remind them of the ultimate victory that is given us in Jesus. We may have lost a battle but we have already won the war. When we think we have lost, have we really lost? We may not be able to see that it is God who is bringing us through it all by his grace. We may need to learn something very important through the lesson. Over the past 12 years, there have been a lot of struggles with despair etc. And even two years ago it all came to the greatest intensity ever. I could conclude that I was living in defeat. But not so. I was learning and growing and finally 2 years ago, the living God actually tore me away from the paradigm that I was kind of stuck in and placed me in a custom made position for me and my family. It all served a purpose and I really feel that the rubber is hitting the pavement, in terms of my spiritual life now. Jesus is helping me to live in faith and victory and not in defeat.

What is God seeking to accomplish through all of the hardships that are happening in our lives? Look at verse 5b-6, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” (ESV)  First, Jesus wants to free us from our sins by his blood. Second, he also wants to make us into a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. And third, the bring glory to Jesus forever. There is a purpose. We don’t just live a trouble free, pain free life, with no struggles and then die, sedated by huge amounts of morphine and the only testimony we have is that we survived a long time. No there are greater reasons. There is a reason why we are going through our hardships. These reasons are found in Christ. When we find those reasons then all of hardships have a purpose. There is a reason for all things. We can have joy and strength in the midst of it all. Jesus has fulfilled all of these three purposes in my life. He set me free by his blood. He has made me a member of a royal priesthood, called to pray for others and minister the Gospel to them and lead them to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. (John 1:29) He is helping me and Julie to glorify the Lord together. Praise the Lord for this.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for coming to us and encouraging us in our times of suffering.

One Word: God will come to encourage you at the right time. 




Interact with us using Facebook

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.