Deeper Waters

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. Tonight, we’re going to skip ahead to Revelation 11 and look at some of the judgments in the last of the trumpets and see what we can learn about the nature of God from that chapter. I won’t be showing particular verses as I want to rather show the theme instead. Before we get there, I want to ask for your prayers for my continued Christlikeness. I believe I am growing into the man I need to be and I believe your prayers are playing a part. I need to remind myself that you are praying for me throughout the day. I also ask for your prayers for my finances. I finally ask for prayers in a third area of my life that is related to these two. God knows even if you don’t.

The setting of this one is the temple of God at first. Now is that the temple in 70 A.D. or a future temple? Well you readers know that I do likely have an opinion on this, but that doesn’t matter at this blog. We are not here to debate when these things will take place or did take place but the significance in them to learning about God.

The prophets are speaking in a city where their Lord was crucified. Let’s note this. Jesus is the Lord of the prophets. They are speaking on behalf of him and we can remember back to Matthew 23 where Jesus says that he will send them prophets. The prophets in this case are meant to point back to Jesus.

We often can have these debates in eschatological circles. Who are the two witnesses? Now I do have a position on this, but I think before we ever discuss who they are, which we won’t here, we need to be clear what they do. They testify of Christ. We should spend more time trying to study the message of those who testify of Christ rather than who they are. It is a shame we ask more about who the witnesses are than we do about who Jesus is.

The chapter as a whole ends with glory to God. He is described as eternal. He is the one to receive glory and who judges the living and the dead, which is what Christ had also said he would do. While Jesus is not mentioned particularly in this part, we can be sure John would understand him as being included in the divine identity.

The reign of God would truly begin at this point. What does this mean? Well, I’m going to leave it for you to work out some with your eschatology, but I do want to focus on the concept of reigning as this ties in well with a passage like Daniel 7. It would also tie in with the most quoted OT passage of all in the NT, that of Psalm 110:1. Both passages speak of the reign of Messiah and Paul spoke of this in 1 Cor. 15:24-28.

The ending point here is simply, YHWH reigns. Christ being in that divine identity is reigning as well. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom with no end.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are continuing to dive into the ocean of truth as we go through our Trinitarian Commentary. Someone asked me yesterday if I’m going through an outline to do this. Nope. I’m just reading through the text and noting the insights I have as I explore it. I’m learning quite a lot through this as well. I do ask your prayers for my continued Christlikeness, for which I have my friends working with me and helping me to grow on the path. Second I ask for prayer for my finances. I’m thankful for the good that came recently, but there’s still more. Third is the other area in my life that is related to these two.

Tonight, we’re going to be looking at the concepts in Revelation 7. It’s a long chapter and so I don’t want to post it all here. I would prefer you to get out your Bibles or go to a website like Biblegateway.com, which supplies the quotes that I use for this blog, and read through and notice where I’m going with the text.

To begin with we have a call of salvation to several on the Earth followed by a picture of a multitude in Heaven. I will leave it to you to determine how you think those connect to each other as at this blog, we don’t get into secondary issues. The second part however gets us into Trinitarian ideas.

This crowd is standing in front of the throne and before the lamb. Note again this concept of the lamb. The lamb is central to all that is going on and he is shown to be distinct from the creation. He is also seen to be closely tied in to the throne of God, something any Jew reading the text would pick up on.

Notice that they also say that salvation belongs to our God and the lamb. The two are directly related. In the fifth chapter, we had praise and glory to the lamb. In the sixth chapter, we had the wrath of the lamb. When we get to the seventh chapter, we have salvation belonging to the lamb, and salvation was usually seen as an act of YHWH.

I would also like to comment on what is seen at the end. The lamb will be their shepherd. What an interesting picture. Normally, it is the shepherd that leads the lambs, but in the Revelation, this is reversed. It is the lamb that is leading the shepherds. He will guide the people to the living waters.

The Jew would not have missed the reference to Psalm 23 where we read that the Lord is the shepherd of his people. Jesus being the shepherd is taking the place of YHWH and he is promising them the bliss that the good shepherd is to give his people. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. The work of the lamb and the work of God are not opposed. They are different functions, but they serve to bring about the glory of God and of course, the lamb.

Glory to the lamb. Salvation is his.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I hope you all are having a good day. I thank you for your continued prayers as I saw more areas that need to be worked on today, but let’s just think positive. Those are scars that Christ can turn into trophies for his glory. Second, I still ask for prayers for my finances, but I am still incredibly thankful for the gift made to me that I found out about yesterday. Finally, I ask for prayer in the other related area. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at Revelation 6:15-17.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Some of you are going to be praying hard for my soul when I say this, but I am not a Trekkie. I have only seen two episodes. I did see the latest Star Trek movie and I did really enjoy it and I even own a copy of it. However, I just never got around to really watching any of the Star Trek series.

However, I have friends who are and I have often heard them discuss the Wrath of Khan. Now the only movie I’ve seen is the last one that came out so I can’t comment on the movie, but we all understand the concept of wrath. Wrath is from someone who is to be feared and you don’t want to be destroyed as they go along their path.

What is the wrath we hear about in Revelation 6? It is the wrath of the lamb. Now this is something you wouldn’t think about. You could imagine an angry ram on a warpath maybe. However, are the great kings of the Earth really going to flee in terror before the wrath of a lamb?

That is exactly the case. The point is that this lamb is not merely a lamb. He is more of a lion. John is writing to remind the readers at the time that the one who the world saw as meek and mild is the one who is their judge. We today can take comfort in that while the world sees us as weak, we are really to be feared.

Note also how the lamb is tied in with God. He who sits on the throne is angry. However, included right along with that is his wrath. They also don’t hesitate to speak in the plural. The day of their wrath has come. The wrath of God is equated with the wrath of the lamb. The point is clear that John wishes to make. Jesus is the judge who is bringing about his wrath on the Earth. He was creator with God in the last chapter. In this one, he is judge as well.

What a message of hope that must have been to the early church. Let it be to us today.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters! We are going to go to Revelation 5 in our Trinitarian Commentary tonight and I don’t plan on putting up verses as I’d just like to look at the chapter as a whole really. First, I’d like to ask for your prayers for my continued Christlikeness which is involving overcoming a lot of fears and a change in my attitude and perceptions. Secondly, I thank you all for your prayers in my finances as a major windfall did happen to come in today. Now there is still much to be done, but this was a great blessing. I don’t know how it came through, but it might be someone reading this blog. If it was you, thank you very much. I am in your debt. Third, for the area in my life that’s connected to these two. That just got a bit easier.

Revelation 5 is taking place before the throne room of God in Heaven. There is talk going about a scroll that no one can open. John is sad that no one can open it until he is told about the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the one who has triumphed. He can open the scroll.

Now notice something interesting. We are told that this is a lion, but the next image we see is of a lamb. John will frequently pull this trick on us where he will give us the exact opposite of what it is that we expect to see. When we hear of a lion, we expect to see someone walk out like Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia. In this case, it is a lamb that walks out.

This is no ordinary lamb however. This is a lamb with seven horns first off, which symbolizes that all power belongs to him. A horn was a symbol of strength. He also has seven eyes, which would indicate that he sees all that happens. He also has the seven spirits, which we believe refers to the Holy Spirit.

Notice how interestingly the elders refer to him as a sacrificial lamb. What’s so fascinating is that this is the lamb that has returned from the altar. This is the lamb that lived to tell the tale. A lamb would normally die and that would be the end. This lamb died meek and mild and now has all power. He is the one who conquered over those who sought to put him to death.

Notice the extolling that takes place of the lamb. He is worthy of glory and honor and praise! All this is taking place at the throne room of God, the one who said he would not share his glory with another. Either Jesus is included in the divine identity and can receive worship, or else God is being rather absentminded about who he is right now.

Finally, all creation is said to worship him who sits on the throne and the lamb. Now if all creation is worshiping the lamb, then it follows that the lamb is not part of creation. He is distinct from it in this verse and that is because he does indeed sit on the throne rightly by nature as he is fully God.

What we have in chapter 5 then is much revealed about the nature of the lamb. As we go through this book, we will see more and more of him. Remember, Revelation is meant to reveal to us who Jesus is and we are for the worse if we do not see that.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters! Tonight, we’re going to wrap up the introductions Jesus gives to the seven churches of himself with the church at Laodicea. First, I do ask for your prayers in my continued Christlikeness as I come up with more and more that I need to work on. Second, I ask for your prayers for my financial situation. Third, I ask for prayers in the last area that I choose to not discuss. For now, let’s go to the text of Revelation 3:14. This time, we’ll be using the NASB.

¹⁴“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:

First, Jesus is the amen. Amen is a word that we say at the end of our prayers with the idea of “so be it.” Naturally, we should hope that we are praying good prayers then because if we do not want something to be, we should not declare “so be it.”

What does that have to do with God? The answer lies in asking what is being amened. Jesus is essentially the amen of God. What God is, Jesus is, so when God’s nature is being described, Jesus is the amen of that description. This is along the same lines of Jesus being the image of God and the exact representation of his being.

It also fits in with Jesus being faithful and true. This is a description that would belong to YHWH in the Old Testament. As we said last night, in describing Jesus as true. YHWH was true in the sense that he was the one who kept the covenant with the people of God. Jesus is following that and he is the one who keeps his covenant with the people of God, this time seen as those who have placed faith in him.

What about him being the beginning of the creation of God? This is why I chose to go with the NASB this time as the NIV has him as the ruler of God’s creation, which would certainly go against the way groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses use this verse. For them, to say that Jesus is the beginning of God’s creation means that Jesus was the beginning in that he was the first one that God created.

However, the Greek word in this case is arche, which can indeed mean beginning, but it can also carry the idea of origin and is consistent with what we’ve seen elsewhere. Jesus, as God’s Wisdom, would be the source of the creation of God.

The message to the church then would have been to see Jesus as the source of all that is, which is a good message for a church that prided itself on the wealth that it had. Today, we should consider this in our own churches. The church I attend is a small church that doesn’t have much financially, but if we have Jesus, we are better off. On the other hand, if there is a megachurch that has much in the area of glitter and gold, but does not have Jesus, they are a deprived church.

Of course, being in a small church does not mean one is in a church that has Christ no more than being in a big church means one is in a church that does not have Christ. Each church must be examined on its own and readers should make sure they are in a church that does hold to the truth of who Jesus is.

Tomorrow, we shall start to see what takes place in the throne room of Heaven.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. We’re  going to be continuing our Trinitarian Commentary tonight looking at Revelation 3:7 and the identification Jesus gives to the church in Philadelphia of himself. First, I ask for your prayers for my continued Christlikeness as it is a struggle for me right now in the area I think I need the most help right now. Second, for my financial situation. Thirdly, for a related area in my life that I hope for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in. For now, let us get to the text.

⁷“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

This description Jesus gives of himself is all about his being Messiah. Noteworthy is that this is another church that Jesus only has praise for. There is no condemnation of this church. It is fitting for a church whose name refers to the city of brotherly love. Apparently, they lived up to their name with love for one another and love for Christ.

The message that Christ gives is a reminder that he is the Messiah. He is holy and true. This is something that would have applied in the OT to only YHWH alone. Holiness was a special quality of YHWH and referred to that which made him distinct from the common. Holy items in worship had the same aspect, though holiness for these items was not by nature but by grace.

True would refer to his being the reliable one who was faithful to what he said. When YHWH made a covenant, YHWH kept his side of the covenant always. The people in the Old Testament could count on YHWH keeping his promises and we in the era where we are under the new covenant can count on Christ doing the same.

He holds the key of David. Christ is the Messiah, a message that the church needs to remember. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises to bring about a deliverer. However, unlike the ideas the Jews had in mind, this was not a deliverer from armies but rather a deliverer from the worst captivity of all, the captivity of sin.

What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. Commentators are divided, but most seem to think this is a counter to admittance in the synagogue. Christ is the one who holds admittance to the Kingdom of God. If he says you’re in, you’re in. If he says you’re out, you’re out.

What about references he says throughout this message of “My God”? It is asked in reply “What about them?” How does it go against the Trinity for one who is God to call another who is God, God? Jesus did come as a servant and he is the one speaking on behalf of the Father to the people. It is up to the anti-Trinitarian to show his case.

Tomorrow, we shall see what Jesus said to the final church, the church at Laodicea.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. We’re going to be starting out on the third chapter of Revelation tonight as we continue our Trinitarian Commentary. I wonder how many people thought we could get so much out of just two chapters so far. Yet we have. This book is rich in Christology and too often we’ve been arguing eschatology so much that we’ve missed it. Speaking of Christology, I do ask for your prayers in my continued Christlikeness. It’s a struggle in many ways, but it is something that’s developing as I have continued to grow especially over these past few months. I also ask for prayers in finances as a couple of phone calls today indicate that something could be coming through soon. Finally, I ask for your prayers concerning the other related area in my life. For now, let us go to Revelation 3:1 and see what Jesus has to say to the church in Sardis.

¹“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

This was certainly a message the church in Sardis liked to hear. The church hardly has anything good said about it. The praise comes with hearing that there are a few that walk with Jesus. One would hope that it would be rather that there are only a few who do not. Christ comes in like a lion to this church and gives quite strong threats.

How does he describe himself? First off, he holds the seven spirits of God. This would best be seen as a reference to the Holy Spirit. Seven is a number of completion. This would mean that Christ is the one who provides the Spirit to the churches. Again, that bespeaks of his deity.

He is also the one who holds the seven stars. Christ is the one who is in charge of the angels. One can remember the Hebrews 1 passage we went through and how repeatedly the author wanted to point out that Christ is greater than angels, which is a theme that we will see throughout this apocalypse.

What a message this would be to our churches today. Christ is the one who first off has the Spirit to give to us. Now I’m not going to get into the charismatic debates, but all churches need the Holy Spirit and to understand the role of the Holy Spirit. Unless he is involved in our ministry, it will be in vain. I leave it to you readers to determine how you think he should be involved based on Scripture, but I believe we all agree he needs to be involved.

Lastly, he holds the angels as well. The church hasn’t developed in Protestantism at least much on the theme of angels, but these are beings that the Bible speaks of and often. It wouldn’t hurt us to learn the role of angels in our lives and realize that God made these beings for a reason.

We should take this into consideration with how we can see Christ approaching our own churches. Christ did not hesitate to condemn this church and may it be that your church or mine is not one where Christ is condemning but then says “Well there are a few that walk right.” May it be the opposite. Again, the warning to Sardis is one for us today, and it comes from the one who is fully God and fully man.

We shall see what is said to the church in Philadelphia tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I just had a good friend message me about my financial situation which is about the same, but it sure is nice to know that people are praying for you. My prayer requests are the same. My continued Christlikeness, my financial situation, and the other area in my life. There is progress going on however and I am pleased. I mainly know this from my friends as well. They’re usually much more objective about our personal growth than we are. For now, let’s go to our Trinitarian Commentary where tonight we’ll be looking at Revelation 2:18.

¹⁸“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that the way Jesus presents himself is like the way that he presented himself to John. We are getting bits and pieces each time as each part is somehow relevant to the churches that he is writing to.

For Thyatira, Jesus describes himself as the Son of God first off, meaning that he is one to be taken seriously. How often might we gloss over the idea of Jesus being the Son of God? Yet imagine this early church here and getting a message in a letter and being told “These are the words of the Son of God.” He doesn’t say Jesus. He points to his ontological position. The church paid attention. Let’s hope we do as well.

His feet are as bronze. The church would have been reminded of the appearances of God in the OT where his feet are like metal and realized that this one who was addressing them was that same one. They were about to be addressed by deity. Note then that the idea of Son of God does not go against deity. In fact, understood in the proper context, it proclaims deity.

He also has eyes as a blazing fire. This would have reminded the people of Daniel 10:6 with the eyes as flaming torches. It is a problem that we are biblically illiterate today and do not recognize the allusions. The church did not live in an age of Bibles like we do today, and yet, I think most gentiles even knew the Old Testament better than we do today.

Both of these symbols would have also reminded the church of judgment, and there is a lot of that. Christ gives a quick praise, but then he goes immediately into judgment and there is a lot to judge for. The church would have known they needed to shape up, especially considering they had a Jezebel in their midst, a lady so wicked that no one else in the OT bears that name.

Today, we in the church can also realize that Christ is examining us with scrutiny and he has authority to judge as he is Lord and God. Once again, we are reminded that the identity of Christ is relevant to the work of the church at all points in time.

Tomorrow, we shall see what is said to the church in Sardis.

Hello and welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we dive into the ocean of truth. I wish to thank everyone for their prayers as I have been seeing real progress being made in my life. I’m quite pleased with it and am reminded of the blessing of friends and family. I do ask that you pray for my continued Christlikeness and that I will be the man that I need to be. I also ask that you pray for me in the area of my finances as there are going to be some expenses for me this year. Finally, I ask for prayer in a specific related area in my life. God knows what it is. Tonight, we will continue our Trinitarian commentary in the book of Revelation looking at Revelation 2:12.

¹²“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.

Pergamum was an interesting church. They are said to be where satan has his throne, but they are true to his name. This church was in the midst of the darkness and yet they were doing what they could to hold to the light. How many churches are like this today?

However, the church was still tolerating false teaching. We’re not told if these people are in leadership or not. Does it really matter? They are in the church and a little bit of false teaching in the church can be a deadly cancer that easily spreads throughout the body. Christ’s command is for them to remove that. Church discipline was something he took seriously and we should as well.

What does Christ have to say in all of this? He is the one who has the double-edged sword. We saw it in chapter one, but in case we forgot it, John repeats what Christ says in that the sword is coming out of his mouth. The voice of Christ is the voice of judgment. Let us not think that this is Jesus meek and mild. Oh he has kind words for repentant sinners, but he’s tough as nails on those who don’t repent.

Jesus as judge is a concept that has been lost. Now we can think of him judging those outside of the church maybe, but do we really stop to consider that he judges those that are within as well? Each of us is in a position where we could be judged and that should be taken seriously by us. As I write this, I have to pause and realize that too often, and maybe even now, I don’t take that seriously. James gave a strong warning especially to those of us who teach. Our judgment will be more severe.

Keep in mind that in the OT, judgment of the people of God was done by YHWH. In the NT, we see that it belongs to Christ. This is what speaks to us of his position in relation to his people. It is not a concept that would have been lost on the new church.

Tomorrow we look at the letter to the church in Thyatira.

Hello everyone and I welcome you back once again to Deeper Waters where we dive into the ocean of truth. I ask for your prayers again at the start for my continued Christlikeness. I have made some progress I believe and today has been a pretty good day overall. Second I ask for prayers for my financial situation. Third, I ask for prayers in a specific area in my life related to both of those. I do appreciate it all in advance as recent developments have made me see more the importance of prayer. For now, let’s go to our Trinitarian Commentary. We’re going through the book of Revelation to understand the doctrine of the Trinity. Tonight, our passage is the description Jesus gives of himself to the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:8.

⁸“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.

Smyrna is one of two unique churches in the letters in the book. Every other church, Christ finds a fault with. He finds no such fault in Smyrna but instead gives them a simple encouragement. Apparently, there was a lot of persecution going on and we must remember that Revelation was written to churches undergoing hard times, so those of us suffering in the church at the hands of the world can find comfort regardless of the time period. This is especially relevant in countries where one’s life is in peril for being a Christian.

To begin with, Jesus identifies himself as the First and the Last. We saw this in Revelation 1 and we noted that this was a way that YHWH described himself to the prophet Isaiah. The idea is that there is not a point of time when YHWH is not. He is eternal.

This would have been a comfort to the church in Smyrna which was of course  a new church. Regardless of if you even take a common conservative stance and date the letter to the 90’s in the first century, the Christian church had not even been around a century. What would their future be?

Christ’s assurance that he is the First and the Last would tell the church that he is Lord over all time and they need not fear being the new kids on the block as it were. In the end, Christ would conquer over those who were persecuting them. This is also why he can tell them what will happen in the future and how long it will last.

Also, he is the one who died and came to life again. This will tie in to his having power over the second death. What a comfort this would be to those churches who were facing death. Just as Jesus died and came to life again, so will some of the church die, but they will come to life again and not be held captive by the second death. They can face with faith the greatest onslaughts of the enemy then.

The conclusion is that who Jesus is is entirely relevant to the church at Smyrna. We may not be Smyrna, but let us remember that who he is is entirely relevant to the church today and that we can take the message given to them and find encouragement in our time today.

We shall continue tomorrow with the church at Pergamum.