Revelation 7: The Lamb is the Shepherd

Today’s reading is Revelation 7.

In John 1:29, John the Baptizer saw Jesus after His baptism and declared:

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (ESV)

In John 4:14, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well:

Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. That water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (ESV).

In John 6:27, Jesus told the crowds coming to be fed:

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal (ESV).

And then again in John 6:35, 47-51a:

I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. I anyone eats this bread, he will live forever (ESV).

And finally, in John 10:11-16:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd (ESV).

Now, in victory, we see the flock of Jesus Christ and the elder’s description of these who have staid faithful even unto death in Revelation 7:15-17:

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (ESV).

Jesus promised. And Jesus provides.

Tribulation and persecution may come in the interim. War, famine, death, and hades may seem to hold sway in the interim. The conquering King may appear to be losing in the interim. But Jesus always wins and Jesus always provides what He promised if we will let Him shepherd us, if we will simply listen to His voice no matter what else is going on around us.

He is the Lamb. He is the Lion. He is the King. He is the Shepherd. He is the Savior. Praise the Lord!

Next week’s reading is Revelation 8.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

What do you want to share with others from Revelation 7?

Revelation 5: The Lamb that was Slain

Today’s reading is Revelation 5.

When John looked up to see the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, he didn’t see a lion. Instead, he saw a “Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6, ESV). How shocking. John had been told he was going to see a conquering lion, instead he saw a sheep that looked like it had been killed by a lion.

Of course, we who are familiar with John’s writings, should already be making connections. Do you recall in John 10, Jesus declared He would lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:11)? Of course, there we don’t see a lamb that was slain, but a Shepherd who sacrifices Himself for the flock.

More subtly, you may recall Jesus was executed during Passover. That automatically brings the picture of a slain lamb to our minds. But more than that, when John recorded Jesus’s death, he explained the Roman soldiers did not break Jesus’s legs and specifically, he said this fulfilled the statement in the Law that “Not one of his bones will be broken” (John 10:36, ESV). However, John did not quote a foretelling of the Messiah’s death. He referred to a law about the Passover Lamb found in Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12. Jesus is our Passover Lamb.

The Passover reminded Israel of their great deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Jesus, as the slain Lamb, provides escape from an even greater bondage. The worshipers in the throne room sing to Him because of His sacrifice:

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, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth…Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!

They worship and praise Jesus, the Lamb who is the Lion. He didn’t conquer by killing, He conquered by dying. And now, not just Jews, but all people may be part of God’s kingdom. That includes us.

Praise the Lord for the Lamb that was slain!

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 5.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 5 prompt or improve your trust in God?

John 2: Signs

Today’s reading is John 2.

Jesus performed signs. He performed many signs. What’s a sign? We might be tempted to claim “sign” is another word for “miracle.” Not so. Fundamentally, a sign is exactly what we consider a sign today: a pointer, an indicator. A sign tells you which way to Phoenix. A sign tells you which store you’re entering. A sign tells you what to do with your car on the road. A sign is a pointer or indicator of something’s identity or use. For instance, when Judas betrayed Jesus, he gave a sign to indicate who Jesus was, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man” (Matthew 26:48). According to Romans 4:11, circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and Israel. According to Genesis 9:13, the rainbow is a sign of the covenant God made with Noah not to destroy the world by flood again. According to Exodus 12:13, the blood of the Passover Lamb was a sign on the door of the Israelites for God to pass over their house. According to Exodus 31:13, the Sabbath was a sign between Israel and God. Admittedly, if one is indicating partnership with God or indicating actual personal deity, a miracle or wonder is a powerful sign. As Nicodemus said, “No one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2, ESV).

Why are signs such a big deal in John’s account of the gospel? Recall one of the main questions John is answering. Which prophet is Jesus? In Deuteronomy 13:1-2, Moses said the testing prophet might perform signs. However, combining Deuteronomy 18:15-19 and 34:9-12, the true prophet like Moses will perform signs like Moses. In other words, if someone comes on the scene performing signs like Moses, He is not the testing prophet, but The Prophet like Moses.

Therefore, John is interested in sharing signs with us. According to John 20:30-31, John could have shared even more signs than he did. But he selected the handful he included in order to convince us Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. However, John doesn’t just want us to agree to a statement. He wants us to gain life by believing Jesus.

As we read John, keep a special eye out for signs, indicators, pointers to Jesus’s power, authority, character, nature, deity. This will help us know who Jesus is and help us tell others who He is.

Tomorrow’s reading is John 2.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does John 2 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Psalm 81: God Will Provide

Today’s reading is Psalm 81.

“Open your mouth wide,” God says in Psalm 81:10, “and I will fill it.”

Carrying on the message from the last two days, Yahweh will care for His people. No other god has done that. No other god will do that. Yahweh, the Lord will fill the mouths of His people.

But…with what?

Surprisingly, in the Old Testament, the concept of people having their mouths filled rarely means eating food. In Psalm 78:30, the plague came on the grumbling and complaining Jews while the quail was still in their mouths. A handful of proverbs speak of food in the mouth (Proverbs 16:26; 19:24; 20:17; 26:15). However, the great majority of OT passages talking about having the mouth filled refer to speech, words, teaching, songs, praise, etc. In Exodus 4:15, Moses would put words in Aaron’s mouth. In Numbers 23:5, 12, God put words in Balaam’s mouth. In Deuteronomy 18:18, God would put words in the mouths of the prophets. The words that filled people’s mouths were not always good. In Psalm 22:13 and 35:21, the mouths were full of mockery and reviling. However, in Deuteronomy 31:19, God wanted Moses to write a song (Deuteronomy 32) that would fill the mouths of the Israelites. And in Psalm 40:3, God put a new song of praise in the mouth of the psalmist.

Our psalmist may be explaining, consistent with the rest of the OT, when Israel cast down the other gods and only followed Yahweh, He would fill their mouths with praise, with thanksgiving, with instruction, with glorious things that are the natural response to being blessed.

On the other hand, this statement may be an exception as a parallel to the last verse in the psalm. God ends the psalm saying, if they would just listen to Him, “He would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (81:16). This makes a nice symmetry. God may be driving home the one point that if Israel listened to Him, He would provide their food. This certainly fits the context of praise on a feast day (vs. 3), especially if, as seems to be the case, it is one of the seventh month feasts (see Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29) happening at the time of harvest.

Adding one more layer, this would be even more potent if the mention of the trumpet/shofar being blown calls to mind Leviticus 25:9 and the blowing of the shofar on the Day of Atonement during the Year of Jubilee. On that year, they quit working their fields for two years. One planting would provide for three years (Leviticus 25:18-22). What a time to be reminded that when they are faithful to the Lord, He will provide.

Psalm 63:5 may help us see both of the above possibilities at the same time. In that verse, we learn when the Israelite earnestly sought God, he could say, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips” (ESV). Granted, the food in this verse is spiritual. But we see the connection. When blessed by God’s provision, our mouths are full of praise.

Whichever view we take on God filling our mouths, the end result is the same. When we serve God, He will provide. As Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV).

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 81.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 81 prompt or improve your trust of God?

Jesus Only Died Once

Today’s reading is Hebrews 9.

Yesterday, we recognized Jesus offered Himself once for all. Very clearly, Hebrews 9:25-26 says Jesus doesn’t offer Himself repeatedly. Today, I want to springboard off of that to talk about one of the regulations of worship we need to recognize in our time.

Before Jesus died, He instituted a memorial of His death. We might call it communion or the Lord’s Supper. Some call it the Eucharist which comes from the Greek word that means simply “thanksgiving.” Though the New Testament never calls it this, this designation has come from the fact that when Jesus established the supper He gave thanks. Others call it the Mass. Except, we must not be confused. Mass is actually very different from the Lord’s Supper.

When churches hold Mass, they are not partaking in a memorial intended to remind them of the body of Jesus that hung on the cross and the blood He shed to remit our sins and provide atonement. Mass is intended to be an offering of Jesus again just as He offered Himself on Calvary. Though Mass is considered an unbloody offering, it is nevertheless sacrificing or offering Jesus again and again and again. Thus, it is seen in that approach not merely as a memorial but as a sacrament. A sacrament is a means by which people receive grace. Thus, the idea is when people participate in Mass, Jesus is offering Himself again and they are receiving grace in the participation.

However, the whole system of Mass is demonstrated false by Hebrews 9. Jesus offered Himself once. He does not offer Himself again and again and again. The point in Hebrews 9 is not that Jesus offered Himself in a bloody offering once but then offers Himself again and again and again without blood. The point is He offered Himself once, period. There is no other offering, no other kind of offering. There is no visible versus invisible offering. There is no transubstantiation in which the bread and juice mystically become the literal body and blood of the Lord offered on the altar or consubstantiation in which the bread and juice literally coexist with the body and blood of the Lord. Rather, we have reminders of the body and blood of the Lord in the bread and the fruit of the vine.

In the Lord’s Supper we proclaim Jesus has died (see 1 Corinthians 11:26) even though He now lives until the time when He returns. However, He does not die again and again and again. He is not offered again and again and again. He is not sacrificed again and again and again. Jesus died, was sacrificed, offered Himself only once.

As we worship God, may we remember His death with the Lord’s Supper, eating the bread which represents His body and drinking the fruit of the vine which reminds us of His blood. Let us proclaim our faith in His death though He is alive evermore. Let us continue to do so until He returns. And let us praise the Lord because He did die, but He will return.

Tomorrow’s reading is Hebrews 9.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why do you think it is important to understand we aren’t sacrificing Jesus and He is not offering Himself again and again and again?
3. Why is it important for us to participate in the Lord’s Supper as a memorial again and again and again?
4. How do you think the Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the Lord’s death until He comes?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

The New Covenant Sabbath

Today’s reading is Hebrews 4.

If I’ve heard one person say it, I’ve heard a hundred say it: “Sunday is the Christian Sabbath.” Or they’ll say the Catholics changed the Sabbath to Sunday or Constantine did. Problem is, they’re all wrong. Well…I mean, Constantine may have thought Sunday was the Sabbath, maybe even some Catholics do as well. However, no matter what anyone has thought about the Sabbath or done on the Sabbath, no one has been able to change the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. It always has been and always will be. If you want to keep the Sabbath, you’ll have to do it on Saturday. Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. However, very clearly, the Sabbath commandment from the Law is not part of our Christian covenant with God through Jesus Christ. We can see that from passages like Romans 14:5-6 and Colossians 2:16.

Certainly, as we read the New Testament, the first day of the week was and is a day for disciples to meet, to worship, to remember Jesus’s death and resurrection. However, the first day of the week is not the New Covenant fulfillment of the Old Testament Sabbath. Rather, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. The New Covenant Sabbath is not Sunday, it is the resurrection.

On the seventh day, God rested from all His works. As the author of Hebrews builds off of that by talking about entering God’s rest, the implication is when God ceased His creative work, the plan was for man to enter into His rest. Going back to Genesis, we recognize entering God’s rest didn’t actually mean doing no work. Adam was to tend and keep the Garden. However, man sinned, was thrown out of the Garden, had to work by the sweat of his brow and in the face of thorns and thistles enduring pain to simply eat of it. Man abandoned the rest of God. As a reminder of that rest, God established the Sabbath day along with certain Sabbath weeks, festivals, and years. But in the New Covenant, Jesus is our Sabbath as He leads us to God’s rest in eternity. In Christ, we will be ushered into the rest of God. That is not just our rest from all our work. It is being in a time and place in which we are enjoying the finished and completed work of God resting in Him, with Him drinking from the River of Life, eating from the Tree of Life, never withering, prospering in all we do without pain, toil, sweat, tears.

It is not that we will do no work in eternity. It is not that eternity is lounging on clouds and eternal sun-bathing in the glory of the Lord. Like Adam, we will work. However, when we are in God’s rest we are relying so heavily on and working in such harmony with God’s completed work that what work we do will not be a toil, but a joy. Because of the curse, it is hard for us to even think of any work in that way. Perhaps the closest is that modern aphorism: “Find something you love, figure out how to get people to pay you for it, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” We are looking forward to a kind of eternal work that is so joyous, pleasant, productive, prosperous that it is rest. That is our Sabbath. That is the New Covenant Sabbath.

Christians do not keep a Sabbath day. We look forward to the eternal Sabbath rest. Let’s keep working now, though it seem toilsome, that we may enter that rest.

Tomorrow’s reading is Hebrews 4.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. However, based on what you know from the New Testament, what are some things all Christians should do on Sunday?
3. What do you most look forward to regarding the eternal rest with God?
4. How can we work today to enter into God’s Sabbath rest for His people?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

God and Not Gods

Today’s reading is Galatians 4.

It’s been a couple of weeks since we started this look at Galatians. However, do you recall the picture Paul started with? Do you recall how his rebuke brought back memories of Israel at Mt. Sinai? The picture continues here in Galatians 4:8-11.

Paul tells these Gentile Christians about their former slavery when they didn’t know the one true God. Instead, they were enslaved to “those that by nature are not gods.” This is like Israel enslaved in Egypt. However, through the plagues, at the Red Sea, and especially at Mt. Sinai, they were introduced to Yahweh, their covenant God. They came to know and be known by the one, true, living God. However, what did Israel do? They quickly deserted God by having Aaron cast the golden calf which by nature was no god at all. Though God had set them free, they were turning back to slavery. The Galatian Christians were in the same boat. As pagans, they had been worshiping what was by nature not god. However, in Jesus Christ they had come to know the one, true, living God. Yet, when the Judaizers came and turned them to the Law of Moses for justification, they were actually going back to slavery even while they thought they were getting closer to the true God.

Do you see the evidence of their slavery? “You observe days and months and seasons and years!” (Galatians 4:10, ESV). That is, they had come out of the paganism that put so much stock in feasts, festivals, proper sacrifices, the moon, the sun, the seasons. For them, these things were all about their false and “not gods,” with stories of gods that supposedly died every year at the beginning of winter and were reanimated at the beginning of spring, and the like. Though they had been set free from this, they had decided to add into the gospel the feasts, festivals, days, new moons, and seasons from the Law of Moses. The problem is, as already explained, nothing in Moses’s Law justifies. None of those rules, rituals, or observances actually brings us closer to God. Only Jesus Christ does that. No doubt, for Jews, those feasts were important. No doubt, for Jews celebrating their own heritage, those feasts and festivals were appropriate even when they became Christians. But for Gentiles to add them in as if they were participating in some deeper spirituality, some closer connection to God, some more intense Christianity was worse than useless. It was actually destructive. Though in a different form, they were turning again to the elementary principles of the world. They were not hanging on to Jesus Christ.

Paul feared all the work he had done in his missionary travels and teaching among them were in vain. Instead of being set free, they were trading in one form of slavery for another. They needed to hang on to the one, true, living God through Jesus Christ. Because, of course, the fulness of deity dwells in Jesus Christ.

We need to grasp this. We have only two choices. We either follow the One who is truly God or we follow not gods. Anything or anyone we follow other than Yahweh through Jesus Christ is simply not god. There is no freedom in what is not god. There is only slavery.

In God, in Jesus Christ, there is freedom. Do not be enslaved by what is not god, be set free by God.

Tomorrow’s reading is Galatians 4.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Why do you think some Gentile Christians are attracted to following parts of Moses’s Law?
3. Why is following Moses’s Law or adding Moses’s Law into the gospel so empty?
4. Do you think freedom in Christ means the freedom to do anything anyone pleases as long as they have been baptized? Why or why not?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

Not a Bone was Broken

Today’s reading is Psalm 34.

Did you see Jesus at the end of this psalm?

He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Psalm 34:20

In John 19:36, we learn Jesus died relatively quickly on the cross. This kept the soldiers from breaking His legs. John says that was to fulfill the Scripture that says, “Not one of his bones will be broken” (ESV).

Certainly, this is part of Jesus fulfilling the Passover sacrifice (see Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12). Yet, Jesus is fulfilling our psalm as well.

Now, I know that sounds odd based on where we started the week. We explained that this psalm is David’s meditation on a moment when he stumbled and fell, but God delivered him anyway. Jesus didn’t stumble and fall. Why would we ever say this psalm is about Him? Good question.

The answer is very simply this. Even though David stumbled and fell, he learned how he was actually supposed to act. He used the experience to turn around and teach the coming generations how they were supposed to live. What did Jesus do? He lived that way. Where David failed, Jesus succeeded.

Jesus lived in fear of God and in wisdom. Jesus lived without deceit and without evil. Jesus sought peace and pursued it. Jesus took refuge in the Father. He committed His spirit into the hands of God. He faced many afflictions, but the Lord delivered Him from them all. And very specifically, despite all His afflictions, not a bone was broken. And because He succeeded, even though He died under Rome’s condemnation, His life was redeemed from the grave because of God’s approval and power. He was condemned by Pilate to die on the cross; He was justified (declared innocent) by God through the resurrection.

From David who failed and from Jesus who succeeded, we learn the same lesson. Trust the Lord. Take refuge in Him. Do what He says. It will be worth it in the end.

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 35.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Passover

Today’s reading is Romans 3.

When we hear “pass over,” we most likely think of the time when God passed over the Israelites who had the blood of the lamb on their door posts when He destroyed the first born of Egypt. But there is another pass over that is even more important. Since the beginning of time, God has consistently passed over the sins of mankind. On rare occasions have we seen God break out in judgment against the sins of anyone (the flood, Nadab and Abihu, Uzzah, Ananias and Sapphira). Usually, God has allowed each of us to sin without immediate judgment. He has passed over our sins. Why? Because He wants to save us, not only being just in His judgment, but also being a justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. He has passed over in order to bring Jesus into the world and to bring the message of Jesus to us and to let us get the message of Jesus to others. Let’s get that message out to others as long as God passes over.

Monday’s reading is Romans 4.