Day 357: Revelation 14:1-20

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’” - Revelation 14:13

Before we get to this verse and the overall scope of chapter 14, I wanted to drop a quote in here about verse 4. It is one that may be confusing and derail us from getting what we should out of the rest of the verses.

“Verse 4 does not mean that all of the ‘144,000’ redeemed saints are celibate males, or that sex itself is sinful. We have seen that, throughout Revelation, adultery, fornication, prostitution, and sexual promiscuity are common images for idolatry—that is, for relationships with gods other than the true creator and Lord of all. By calling them ‘pure/virgins,’ John characterizes Christians as persons who shun the kind of idolatry involved in Roman emperor worship and other pagan religions.” - Christopher A. Davis

Now, back to the full scope of the chapter. In chapters 12-13, we are given a close-up of the events to happen just before Jesus’s return. Chapter 14 zooms in on the final judgment between those who “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” and those who follow themselves (ultimately, the Devil).

What we do now will follow us into eternity. What we want now will determine what we receive after this life.

While an eternal hell seems like an extreme punishment to most of us, we need to keep in mind that God will give us what we want. Life apart from Him is no life at all. We may be able to fake it here and now as long as our health and finances hold out, but that won’t be possible at the end of our time on earth.

I pray this gives us all more of an urgency to follow Jesus and help others do the same. It is the best life possible, both now and for eternity.

Day 356: Revelation 13:1-18

“…and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” - Revelation 13:8 ESV

This chapter in John's Revelation has run wild with various interpretations. Not only that, but each generation of Christians seems to be ready to identify someone in their context as the beasts pictured here. To make matters more confusing, John takes the four beasts of Daniel 7 and he melds them into one with the first beast he describes.

It is good to remember that this was originally written to first-century Christians in Asia Minor (Turkey). They were finding it harder and harder to hold to their faith in Jesus and survive. 

Roman taxation and the vanity of the current Caesar, Domitian, made life difficult if you followed Jesus. Domitian insisted on being called "lord," "savior," or "son of the gods." Sound familiar?

The biggest tactic of the Devil is to produce a faux Jesus for us to follow, but we know that the imitation never holds a candle to the original.

If it hasn't already, following Jesus will cost you dearly. You will lose friends, financial gain, and perhaps your own life.

Even so, we know our place is secure. Verse 8 declares that before God said, "Let there be light," He knew you would turn to Him in complete faith. Soak this in. He even wrote your name down. Before you had a name, He knew it.

So no matter what following Jesus will cost us, we know it will be completely worth it.

"John wants his little handful of persecuted Christians to see that the thing that matters is the sovereignty of God, not the power of evil. When a man’s name is written in the book of life he will not be forgotten. His place is secure." - Morris, L. (1987). Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 20, p. 164)

Day 355: Revelation 12:1-17

“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testim loved not their lives even unto death.” - Revelation‬ ‭12:11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Our reading for today is a timeline roller coaster, and it can be confusing to identify the characters in play. One of the characters that is pretty easy to identify is our enemy. In this passage alone, he is called:

• Satan (accuser/adversary)

• Devil (slanderer)

• Serpent (Genesis 3)

• Deceiver (leads the whole world astray)

• Dragon (great shimmering serpent)

Wow, this is pretty daunting to think about us having to deal with an enemy who has been at his game for so long. How are we supposed to resist such an opponent that aims to destroy us?   (John 10:10)

John makes it clear as he writes how Christians did and will overcome our enemy:

1. Blood of the Lamb

2. Word of our testimony

3. We do not love this life too much that we refuse to lose it.

Jesus “threw down” the Devil and his demons when He shed His blood. This sacrifice allows us to come to Him by faith. When God saves us through Jesus, it produces for us a testimony to share. As we grow in our faith, we will get to the point where dying for Jesus is something we would welcome and see as an honor.

With these three, the Devil cannot cope. Jesus is too strong, and our testimonies of His work among us are irrefutable. Victory is found in Christ alone.

"Unless people are certain that they have been justified through faith (to use Paul’s language, Rom. 5:1), they have no hope of standing up against the devil’s accusations." - Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 212)

Day 354: Revelation 11:1-19

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’” - ‭Revelation‬ ‭11:15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The big question of Revelation 11 is, “Who are the two witnesses.” We don’t really know. Moses and Elijah? Joshua and Zerubbabel? Maybe a touch of all four?

We do know that a lot of the language used to describe these two witnesses is the same that was used earlier in Revelation in describing the church, especially the martyrs (the same Greek word for witness—martys). So these two could very well represent the church. Deuteronomy 19:15 shows that the law required a testimony to be confirmed by two or three witnesses.

Regardless, as we come to verse 15, we get yet another angle on what the return of Jesus will be like.

Heaven and earth will become permanently merged.

Christians, for almost two thousand years, have prayed the Lord’s Prayer, which was taught by Jesus. The seventh trumpet being blown is a fulfillment of that prayer:  “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

When Jesus returns, all wrongs will be made right. There is something deep inside all of us that groans and longs for this to take place.

"This statement, which inspired the great 'Hallelujah Chorus' of Handel’s 'Messiah,' offers one of the best definitions of the consummated kingdom of God in Revelation. All worldly authorities must step aside as God and his Christ mount the throne, bringing everything in the universe under their sovereign will." - Davis, C. A. (2000). Revelation (p. 243)

Day 353: Revelation 10:1-11

“I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.” - Revelation 10:10 NIV

To start today's post, it is fitting to share Eugene Peterson's quote (from “Eat This Book”):

“The reading that John is experiencing is not of the kind that equips us to pass an examination. Eating a book takes it all in, assimilating it into the tissues of our lives. Readers become what they read. If Holy Scripture is to be something other than mere gossip about God, it must be internalized. Most of us have opinions about God that we are not hesitant to voice. But just because a conversation (or sermon or lecture) has the word ‘God’ in it, does not qualify it as true. The angel does not instruct St. John to pass on information about God; he commands him to assimilate the word of God so that when he does speak, it will express itself artlessly in his syntax just as the food we eat, when we are healthy, is unconsciously assimilated into our nerves and muscles and put to work in speech and action."

This book that John eats is at first sweet and then turns sour. God is calling back to Jeremiah 15:16 and Ezekiel 3:1-3 (they were also commanded to eat Scripture). In those messages, the prophets were not given an easy task. They had to communicate the ins and outs of God's judgment to Israel.

Though God's word satisfies the deepest longing of our hearts to be loved (it is sweet), it also confronts us in our darkness and won't be content with seeing us languish in our sins.

Every time we choose to open our Bibles to read, study, meditate, and apply, we know that Jesus will not leave us where He found us. He loves us too much to do that. There is no other meal on earth that can offer this kind of experience.

You are loved. Still, there are changes that must take place.

Day 352: Revelation 9:1-21

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”  - Revelation 9:20-21 ESV

As you may have noticed, with the trumpets being blown, pretty much a third of everything was taken out. With each trumpet blast, there is a parallel to the Exodus story with the plagues in Egypt.

Trumpet #1 - Hail and fire mixed with blood, 7th plague (Exodus 9:13-35)

Trumpet #2 - Sea turned into blood, 1st plague (Exodus 7:14-24)

Trumpet #3 - Many people died, 1st and 10th plague (Exodus 7:14-24,11-12)

Trumpet #4 - Sun, moon, stars grow dark, 9th plague (Exodus 10:21-29)

Trumpet #5 - Locusts emerging, 6th and 8th plagues (Exodus 9:8-12,10:1-20)

Trumpet #6 - Demonic army kills, 10th plague (Exodus 11-12)

In all of these, we see the emphasis is on a third being taken away. It won't be till the 7th trumpet (Revelation 11:13-15) that all will be laid waste (at Jesus' second coming).

During the first six trumpets, there is time to repent. It isn't too late for those who have defiantly denied Jesus.

Paige Patterson says it well: Even when they see the penalty of their actions, they determine to continue the practices of evil that brought about these judgments, preferring to satiate physical appetites rather than to nourish their spirits with the presence of the living God.

I've often wondered what the tipping point is for those who have yet to say yes to Jesus. What is it going to take? In the trumpets scene, we see plagues that are provided as a wake-up call to those who are lost without hope (see Ephesians 2:12).

There will come a time when it will be too late to repent. I pray that all of us would not wait for a cataclysmic event to repent, but may we return to Jesus today.

Day 351: Revelation 8:1-13

“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.” - Revelation 8:3 NIV

First of all, we will get to the purpose of the trumpets being blown tomorrow, but for now, it is good to see these as events that are allowed to happen on earth to get people's attention away from themselves and onto God.

Also, the seventh seal is broken and what follows seems to be anti-climactic, but we would do well to recall how the throne room scene was depicted in chapters 4-5. It is constantly overflowing with praise and thunder. So this abrupt pause indicates something incredible just happened. Like, say, Jesus, returning for His bride, the Church! We sometimes use the phrase, "it took my breath away," which is pretty good to think about here.

But the truth that stood out to me the most in today's reading is the careful collecting that happens in heaven when it comes to our prayers.

Apparently, our prayers will play a vital role in the restoration of all things. The residents of heaven value every single word we communicate toward God. Even though we may not think much of our ramblings and requests, confessions and cryings-out. God cherishes every one of them.

I hope that this encourages you to pray today. Ask God for more than you can fathom to be done on earth as it is in heaven. He is listening, and now we know all heaven is stirred when the words leave our lips and hearts.

Let’s let Lewis Foster bring us home with this powerful quote about this passage: “The combination of the prayers of the saints from earth and the fire of God from Heaven has been sufficient to open the action in a new series of visions. The stage is set.”

Day 350: Revelation 7:1-17

“Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'” - Revelation 7:13-14 NIV

As we have said before, it is hard for us as Christians in the United States to understand what "great tribulation" is really like. This may be why many Christian authors have made so much money talking about a coming tribulation that will happen after Christians have been raptured away.

Yet if we took the time to interview a Christian from North Korea, Afghanistan, northern Nigeria, or Somalia, asking them their opinion on tribulation, they would tell a much different story. As you read this post, they find themselves in the middle of persecution: Imprisonment, execution, and labor camps. In North Korea, most adult Christians have to worship so much in secret that they don't tell their children about their own faith in Jesus until they are teenagers.

So, when we say things like, "What you do in this life when it comes to Jesus is the most important decision you will make," it rings loud and true for persecuted Christians, and it should speak loudly to us as well.

We should be so thankful for our religious freedom, but we should pray it never makes us soft, apathetic, or avoidant when it comes to Jesus' sacrifice.

Only Jesus can make us clean, preparing us for eternal life. Nothing cleanses like His blood. 

Let’s put our trust completely in Him today!

"The complete efficacy of Christ’s atoning death is being strongly asserted. It is on the grounds of his death that people are able to stand before the throne properly clothed. This is a further indication that the throng comprises all the saved and not simply the martyrs or some other group. For all are saved in this way and no other." - Morris, L. (1987). Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary, (Vol. 20, p. 117)

Day 349: Revelation 6:1-17

“They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’” - Revelation 6:10 NIV

The one worthy to break the seals and open the scroll now begins the process of breaking all of the seals. As we established yesterday, this is what it takes to usher in the restoration of all things. For Jesus to accomplish this great work, we first see that He's going to have to deal with all that is wrong in the world.

The four horsemen are those we see cycling throughout history:

#1 - The Tyrant, focusing on world domination

#2 - War

#3 - Economic downturn

#4 - Death of the unnatural sort

Yet the fifth seal might take us off guard. When it is broken, the sacred Christian martyrs speak from under the altar. They ask a question that many of us have asked of God: "How long?" Their specific question has to deal with avenging their blood.

Our questions deal with the disappointments that keep rolling in the longer that we live.

Like the martyrs, we are told that the day is coming, and more still needs to take place. More sweet Christians will lose their lives. More of the lost will be found (2 Peter 3:9). The kingdom of God will keep advancing.

All the more reason to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus (and His imminent return) today (Hebrews 12:1-3).

“The reason for the suffering of these martyrs is that they have been slain ‘because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.’ The costliness of faithfulness and testimony and of adherence to the word of God was notable in John’s day even as he himself suffered exile on Patmos. Throughout history such faithfulness to the word of God and to one’s testimony has often proven costly.” - Paige Patterson, Revelation, pg. 185

Day 348: Revelation 5:1-14

“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.’” - Revelation‬ ‭5:5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Here we are given a second scene in Heaven as it currently is. This one starts by zooming into the throne room and then slowly pans back to show how expansive it is in reality. It is large enough to house thousands and thousands of angels who add their voices (and songs) to what the twenty-four elders and four living creatures contribute. This worship is a concert of praise that never takes a break.

Why all the singing and the bowing?

Jesus has been found worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. As we proceed in Revelation, we will see why this scroll is so essential. It will usher in the restoration of all things, with Jesus setting all things right with His coming.

The descriptions of Jesus keep pouring in:

• Lion 🦁 >> He is a strong conqueror

• Root >> the Hebrew prophets announced Him

• Lamb >> He bled so we could be free

If this doesn't motivate you to praise our Lord and Savior today, nothing will. May we join the members of the throne room in praise of the one who is worthy.

"He tells us that the Lion has triumphed. The word points to complete victory and the aorist tense may well indicate a victory once and for all."  - Morris, L. (1987). Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 20, p. 97)