Jesus Loves Me, More Than I Know!
Notes
Transcript
The first Christian song most children learn is Jesus Love Me and the first Bible verse they memorize is the last portion of 1 John 4:8, “God is love.” The love of God is so elementary that most of us hardly think of it, because we are convinced we know it all.
Apocalyptic visions, such as Revelation, are designed by God to wake us from our stupor and open our eyes to reality as it really is. This is true of even the most elementary doctrines, such as the doctrine of God’s love for us. This morning, I am taking three passages from the book of Revelation that push the limits of God’s love for us farther than most of us ever imagined.
The first passage is Revelation 1:5-6:
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.
From this passage, we learn that...
Jesus Loves Me, By Securing For Me a Glorious Future
Jesus Loves Me, By Securing For Me a Glorious Future
For most people who claim to be Christians, the news that Jesus “has freed us from our sins by his blood” is “old news”. It is gloriously “good news”, but it is news we have heard many times before. What we have not heard, or perhaps I should say, fully appreciated is the second part of this sentence, “and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.” If you are not familiar with the Old Testament, this verse (and in fact the whole of the book of Revelation) sounds strange. The book of Revelation cites the Old Testament more than any other book of the New Testament and makes more allusions to the Old Testament than all other books of the New Testament combined!
When John says that Jesus has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”, he is making clear reference to Ex. 19:6, which reads:
and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
As you can see, the very things God promised the Israelites in the Old Testament has now been fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament. In order, to appreciate what was promised in the Old and has now been fulfilled in the New, we need to examine what it means to be a “kingdom” and a “priest”.
When Jesus began His ministry, He began by announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God. What the Jews understood then, and most of us today do not, is that Jesus was not simply claiming that God’s reign on earth through the Messiah would be established, but the Israelites would share in the Messiah’s reign. It has been God’s plan from the very beginning that His people have dominion over the whole earth. What threw the Jews off is that currently this Kingdom and dominion will not be consummated fully until the Second. As believers, our future is glorious we are co-rulers with Christ.
The second part of this promise is that we will be priests. A priest is a person who has access to and serves the living God. This is a tremendous privilege, not every creature has this privilege; in fact, only a select few do. The Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple were designed to illustrate this: In concentric circles there was first a court for Gentiles, then a court for Israelite women and children, then one for Israelite men, then one for priests and finally there was the Holy of Holies, where God’s throne resided, and into this place only the High Priest could go, and at that, only one day a year!
As the Great High Priest, Jesus has given to the elect the privileges of a high priest! Speaking of this privilege, the author of Hebrews writes:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Did you hear that! Even now, we can enter into God’s heavenly Holy of Holies by faith! We can do so, the author of Hebrews says, in “full assurance of faith” because we have been “sprinkled clean” and “washed’ by the blood of Jesus.
People often imagine the eternal state as being boring; it will be anything but! As co-rulers with Christ, we will have dominion not just of this planet we call Earth, but over the entire created order! More than that, we will have access to the very throne room of God, worshipping and serving Him as priests!
O, Jesus love you, more than you can ever know!
With such awesome responsibility, we must be carefully groomed and prepared. This bring us to the second passage; Revelation 3:19:
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
From this passage, we learn...
Jesus Loves Me, By Preparing Me for a Glorious Future
Jesus Loves Me, By Preparing Me for a Glorious Future
The tribulations and trials that God’s people undergo in the book of Revelation frighten many people, but these trials and tribulations should not frighten us but cause us to rejoice. James the Lord’s brother writes:
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Why can we have joy in trials and tribulations? It is because God as a loving Father is preparing us for our glorious inheritance!
Consider how the children of earthly kings and queens are carefully groomed and prepared to be future kings or queens. We know that wise rulers did not go easy on their children, but lovingly disciplined them. It was the foolish rulers that indulged and pampered their children and as a result, their children grew up to be failures.
In Hebrews, from which we read of our privilege of serving God as a high priest in the Holy of Holies, that we read:
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
He goes on to say:
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 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.
Right now, God is disciplining His church with the trial of COVID-19. Do not waste this moment by giving into fear; rather examine yourself to see where God is training you in righteousness and holiness. Rather than being immobilized in fear, serve the living God as a priest by being an example and encouraging others!
This brings us to the third and final passage is Rev. 3:9:
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.
From this passage, we learn
Jesus Loves Me, By Protecting My Glorious Future
Jesus Loves Me, By Protecting My Glorious Future
The greatest threat you face right now is not COVID-19, but the Beast, the False Prophet and the Harlot. I have no doubt that in the very “last days” of the Last Days, there will be a final manifestation of these three figures, but in the book of Revelation they serve as prophetic symbols of the earthly forces of evil that are in league with the Devil. The Beast represent ungodly political forces, the False Prophet represents false teachers, and finally, the Harlot represent ungodly cultural forces. John, in his first letter warns:
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
Notice what John says, we are already in the last hour because many antichrists have already come!
The persecution suffered by the seven churches in the book of Revelation, spans the full spectrum; from the “soft persecution” of slander and mocking, to the “hard persecution” of martyrdom. The same has been turn ever since and is true today. Up until today, the church in America has suffered “soft persecution”; but already, there are Christians in America that cannot buy or sell unless they wear the “mark of the Beast”. Christian bakers, photographers, surgeons, university professors and others have all lost their jobs because they did not bend the knee to abortion, sexual immorality and the reversed racism of critical theory. The day is coming soon when the “cancel culture” will be coming for you as well, and on that day will you bear the mark of the Beast or of Christ?
This is scary stuff. How can we stand? More importantly, how can we love our enemies and pray for them as Christ commands? The only way to do so is to know that Christ will so completely vindicate His people that on Judgement Day, Christ will force each and every one of our enemies to come before us and bow down before our feet!
Paul knew this truth well; you see, he was once a persecutor of the church. As Stephen was being stoned, God gave Stephen a vision of Christ on His throne glory. With the knowledge that Christ would vindicate His people, Stephen was able to pray for his enemies in his dying breath. Paul was there; he heard Stephen’s prayer. In time, God answered Stephen’s prayer, and Paul was miraculously converted!
Don’t you see? Justice is satisfied, either by the blood of Christ or by the fires of Hell! This is why Paul could write:
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The book of Revelation is God’s gift to the church, to encourage her in times of trial and tribulation. Nothing we face can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus! This love is complete and perfect from beginning to end. Christ has:
Secured for us a Glorious Future
Is Preparing us for a Glorious Future
Is Protecting Our Glorious Future
Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong!