Author: Don Guthrie

Don Guthrie is the Senior Pastor at FBCSA.

Seven seals

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 6 (day one)

There are seven seals on the scroll. And only Jesus is worthy to open them and set in motion the last events.  Lion AND Lamb, Alpha AND Omega, only He has the authority.

There are also (we will see in the next chapters) seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath to be poured out on a world of rebellious men.  In every case (the seals and the trumpets and the bowls) the seventh involves an earthquake.  See 8:5, 11:19, 16:18.  Are these three separate and successive events?  (Some say yes)  Are they different symbols for one reality (the progressive and terrible judgement of God)?  (Others put their confidence here)

Whatever else we conclude, these are frightful symbols and warnings.  “But because of your stubbornness and the unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of God’s righteous judgement.”–Romans 2:5

Please, Lord, use your word to prepare your people.

 

Open door

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 4:1-7, 5:1-14 (day seven)

“Behold, a door standing open in heaven.”–v 4:1.

How long had the door been open?  I wonder.  John didn’t see it opening.  It was open when he saw it.  Maybe the symbolism is that heaven always is!

The Bible tells of a God who is light.  He shines!  Wants to be noticed and known.  From eternity, the great and good and glorious One has made ways to communicate Himself to the creation.  He invites us to know Him.  Calls us.

It gives new meaning to Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”  What if (now and always) the lock on the door is on our side rather than His?  What if we don’t know because we don’t want to know, stubbornly unwilling to meet God’s conditions?

Ever hear of an “open book”?  God is an “open door”.

“Ask. . .receive, seek. . .find, knock, and it (the door) will be opened.”–Matthew 7:7

Sights and sounds

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 4:1-7, 5:1-14 (day one) 

What does Heaven look like?  What will we hear?  John knows.

It looks like COLORS.  Jasper (rich, brownish-yellow–some scholars think a diamond is meant).  Carnelian (red)  Emerald (a rainbow of green, probably multiple shades and tints of it).  White robes.   Gold crowns.  Crystal sea.  Blazing lamps.

It looks like people/beings.  Like life.  The One on the throne is never described.  The ACTIVITY around Him is.  Living creatures (very similar to those Ezekiel saw) Elders casting crowns down in show and symbol of humility.

It sounds like SINGING!  Songs of praise to the Lamb slain and to the One who sits on the throne. People and angels and creatures and creation. “Worthy is the Lamb” they sing in great, majestic chorus.

It sounds like THUNDER, the rumbling judgement of God ready to be revealed to a world of unrepentant men.

Before we can understand John’s vision, we must see and hear it.  It is going to be a great week of RE Verse reading!

 

Star power

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 2:1-11; 3:1-6, 14-21 (day seven)

I believe the seven stars in Revelation 1-3 represent seven pastors.  Seven men (we never know their names) who were called by God for a certain period of time to feed and lead a congregation of His people.  Seven men to whom the Risen Savior communicated His concerns and commands, with the expectation that they would faithfully and courageously pass them to His people.

In the vision, they are symbolized as stars.  Tiny spots of light in a dark sky.  None of them noteworthy “in and of themselves”.  Taken together,however, and over the long history of the earth, a beautiful display of faithful testimony and service.

Modern churches sometimes make “stars” of their Pastors.  Celebrities.  “On stage” personalities.  God has a different vision.  He values them as men to whom He has given responsibility–for His word and His flock.

He holds them in His hand.  A sweet reminder of this calling and privilege.

A perfect church?

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 2:1-11; 3:1-6, 14-21 (day one)

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write. . .I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance. . . But I have this against you, that you have left you first love.”–2:1-4

“There are no perfect churches.  Stop looking!  If you did find one, it would stop being perfect the day you joined it.”–Dan Yeary

“Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”–Matthew 5:48

Seven churches.  Seven Pastors.  Stories mixed with success and failure, things Jesus commended, things he challenged.  None of the churches were perfect.  All of them were called to be–at least in the sense of being perfectly faithful to the purposes of God. (Functional perfection, not moral or categorical).

It has been a mistake to “market” the American church to the whims and preferences of the culture.  “I want this kind of childcare”.  “I like this style of worship”.  The approval every church needs comes from the Lord.

Spiritual eyes

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 1 (day seven) 

“Having turned, I saw. . . one like the son of man. . .and his face was like the sun shining in its strength”–v 12, 13, 16.

There were moments for the disciples, but only moments, when they saw the glory of Christ.  The Transfiguration is one example.  Jesus praying, and His glory began to shine out in brilliant white light.  (Matthew 17)  The day He calmed the storm, His resurrection appearances and ascension–all were momentary glimpses of the truth.

Most days weren’t like that.   Their physical eyes saw only physical reality.  Like us, they were vision impaired, seeing problems and dangers, but not the All-Sufficient Christ!

“Blessed are you, Simon, God has REVEALED it to you” said Jesus after Peter confessed Him as the Christ. (Matthew 16).  When we study REVELATION, we are seeking the same grace.  Lord, open our eyes to your glory and purpose.  Help us to see eternal and invisible things.  We need spiritual eyes.

I saw the Lord

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 1 (day one) 

“When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as a dead man.”–v 17

The supernatural world is not tame.  The invisible realities that created the visible world are huge and high and fearful.  People who see Angels or any appearance of God all have the same reaction.  Conviction of sin. Overwhelming fear.

Isaiah “saw the Lord, high and lifted up”.  Ultimately encouraging, the immediate impact of the vision was to make Isaiah acutely aware of his own sinfulness–particularly the use of his lips (i e I have talked about for such foolish, silly things).

When John saw the resurrected and glorified Christ, he fainted.  Full system shut down!

People often say, “I want to talk to God, I want to ask Him a question!”  Usually I think to myself, “No, my brother, I don’t think you really do.”  People who have actually seen the Lord tell a different story.

Impossible people

Re:Verse reading–Acts 4:1-22 (day seven)

“When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them)”–v 21.

Os Guinness has a new book out.  It is called Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization.  The title comes from an eleventh century Benedictine reformer, Peter Damian.  Despite intense opposition, he spoke out against sexual immorality in the priesthood, against the selling of church offices.  He was unbending and  unstoppable and unbribable.  He was impossible!

I think the Sanhedrin would have said the same of Peter and the first followers of Christ.  They arrested them, beat them, threatened them, but they couldn’t make them stop speaking the things they had seen and heard (and believed) in Christ.

We are called to be these people in an age of spiritual darkness and denial.   We are to speak of Christ, even when it is unpopular.  We are to be impossible.

Amazing Grace

Re:Verse reading–Acts 4:1-22 (day one) 

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”–v 13

You are amazing!  At least, you can be.  Hang around Jesus!  Let him shape how you think about God or self or the future, and people will certainly begin to notice something “different” about you.  Something that they can’t quite explain or describe.

Maybe it will be your confidence. “Free speaking” is the best translation of the word in v 13.   The disciples weren’t afraid.  They were uninhibited–and without the normal “confidence credentials”.  No seminary degree or letters in front of their names.  Just boldness.  It was amazing!

Maybe hanging with Jesus will make you uncommonly tender, or surprisingly wise or shockingly unselfish.  One way or another, His plan is to have people look at your life and be amazed.

 

Not in vain

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 15 (day seven) 

“the gospel. . .by which you are saved, if you hold fast. . .unless you believed in vain.”–v 1-2.

Paul is concerned.  The Corinthian church is a mess.  Early on, they made a great start in faith, but stumbled badly soon after.  He is concerned that they “believed in vain.”

The word means empty.  Empty of power.  Of value.  It describes the dangerous possibility of a person “believing” the gospel, but at such a superficial level that it does not save or rescue or transform.

What are the danger signals?  Denial of doctrine (see this whole discussion in chapter 15).  Unrepentant immoral behavior (see chapter 6)  Strife, lack of love (see chapter 11 and 13).

Notice how Paul returns to this subject in v 58?  “Your toil is NOT in VAIN”.  The proof of true faith is perseverance.  Steady.  Immovable.  Abounding in the work of the Lord.  Paul wanted this for the people of Corinth.  The Lord wants it for us.