Thoughts from Revelation

As I continue through Revelation with a group of friends, I’d like to share a few more thoughts about what we’re learning, as well as some of my own meditations.  This week, we looked at the letters that Jesus dictated to the seven churches of Asia minor.  They occupy chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation.  One phrase in particular has always struck me, as well as many others who have studied this book.  First, allow me to do a bit of set-up before I introduce my main topic.

Jesus has just finished congratulating the Ephesian church (the same one Paul had written to a several decades earlier) because of their diligence in the work of ministry.  He says, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.  An you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary” (Rev. 2:2-3).

That’s quite a resume!  They have been hard at work to spread the Gospel, building up their congregation, discerning and dismissing false leaders, and, in all this, they’re as fresh as when they began.

But it’s not enough.  Jesus continues in verse 4, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (emphasis mine).  Pow!  Zing!

It’s not enough to work hard, not give up, seek truth, demand accountability in others, share the Gospel, etc.  Leaving your first love is a big deal to God—big enough to receive a “nevertheless.”  When someone says “nevertheless,” they’re saying, “I’ve added up everything you’ve mentioned and I’ve put it on a scale.  On the other side I’ve placed what I believe you’ve left out, and my side is heavier.  My side is more important than all your stuff put together.”

If we’re really honest, some of us are thinking, Nevertheless?  Really, Jesus?  That seems kind of rough.  I mean, look at all they’re doing!  It’s hard for me to get off my couch sometimes, and You’re complaining about them not loving You enough?  Didn’t James say faith without works is dead?  Didn’t John say that we have to love our brothers to show our love for you?  Doesn’t this count?  If it doesn’t, I’m hopeless!

No where does Jesus say that anything they’re doing is bad, or that it doesn’t measure up to a high standard of accomplishment.  He is affirming them, even as He’s about to correct them.  Seemingly, the first love that the Ephesians put in a lesser place of priority permeates everything else in their lives.  They can work diligently doing great things for God, yet fall short because of this prioritization.

Jesus actually taught this during His time on the earth.  In Matthew 22, an expert in the law came to Him and asked “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (v. 36)  It seems like the sort of question that has a consideration of priority behind it.  This lawyer seems to be asking, “Just to make sure I’m hitting the big one, which is it?  If I was going to just do one of the laws, which one should it be?  If You could sum it up in a nutshell, what would it be?”  Jesus responds by saying, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (vv. 37-40).

Jesus certainly connected the need to love other people with loving God.  But He put it in its proper place. If you put more effort into loving people than you do loving God, it’s a tragic mistake of misorder.

When He says “You’ve love your first love”, Jesus is effectively saying, “You don’t love Me as much as you used to.”  I hope that you’re able to sit with that for just a moment to feel the impact of His words.  I hope you’re able to catch just a little of Jesus’ heart, because it’s a heart of desire, not condemnation.  It’s a passionate cry from a lovesick Bridegroom for us to enter deeper into the fullness of His love.

So let us work diligently to enter into this fullness.  We must remember our first love.

Thoughts from Revelation

The scene is set in heaven, where God Almighty sits on His throne in complete control of the course of history. John (many believe the Apostle John) is invited to witness something astounding. It’s something that no one has ever been privy to (that we know of) in all of humanity’s existence.

God offers a scroll securely sealed to anyone worthy to take it from His hand and open its contents.

The angelic order draws back, as they grasp the offer, as well as how far they fall short. These are creatures that have never sinned and transgressed God laws, yet they perceive the recipient is not among their ranks.

Suddenly, a man appears before the throne of God. Surely, no man has on the claim. For we know that the human race went wayward long ago. Only a third of the angelic host rebelled against God, but 100% of humanity has preferred their way to God’s.

Except One.

There has only been One who preferred His Father’s way to His, and so fully submitted Himself that He became the sacrifice that reunited the Father with anyone who so desires. This sacrificial Lamb now stands and boldly takes another installment of what He purchased: The title deed to planet Earth. Leadership over all the nations has belonged to Him from the Beginning, but now it’s time  again to act. Now it’s time to enact the plan so that His Kingdom will have it’s fullest impact and expression.

He is coming.

And there are things here that we must deal with.  Being prepared not only corresponds to knowing what Scripture says about His Second Coming, but our heart must be equipped to deal with the questions that accompany it.

Specifically, Why must Jesus do things this way?  Why, when the seals are opened, is there so much calamity upon the Earth?  Why does Jesus do it this way?  Does a loving God really allow such things to come to pass.  Does a loving God actually initiate these things?

We must do this if only to satisfy the questions in our own heart.

If we don’t know this side of Jesus, do we really know Him?  If we refused to know certain aspects of our friends, are they really our friends?

I would enjoy hearing any feedback you may have.

Josh

Food for Thought

“If the believer would enter into a better, deeper, fuller knowledge of God he must prayerfully study the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures! Let this be made our chief business, our great delight, to reverently scrutinize and meditate upon the excellencies of our Divine Savior as they are displayed upon the pages of Holy writ. Then, and only then, shall we ‘increase in the knowledge of God’. The ‘light of the knowledge of the glory of God’ is seen only ‘in the face of Jesus Christ.’”

A.W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, p 23-4.

Escort to Love

I found this quote from an article John Piper wrote dealing with eschatology:

The longer you meditate on the writings of the apostle Paul, the more clearly you see that genuine, deep spiritual experience depends on genuine, deep biblical knowledge. I mean things like faith and love and peace and joy—these precious subjective experiences of the heart—depend on the mind’s apprehension of objective biblical truth. From a biblical standpoint, studying and thinking and knowing are never ends in themselves; they always stand in the service of feeling and willing and doing. The mind is the servant of the heart. Knowledge exists for the sake of love. And all theology worth its salt produces doxology. (Emphasis mine)

I think we need to especially keep this in mind when discussing the end times.  Most of us–myself included–get really focused on getting our doctrine locked down air-tight so that we can win arguments, and we forget that the whole point is love.  If we leave that out, we’re just a clanging symbol.

Josh

Holiness Remix

Over at Justin Taylor’s blog you’ll find a short blurb from an interview with a church leader who is talking about sanctification (there’s also a link to the entire interview).  He highlights this section:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They’re not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn’t take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It’s not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that’s a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what’s right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they’re not immoral.

I thought it was so good I had to quote it here myself.

Lord, Come Quickly

“Thomas Merton wrote [in his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander] that when the church thinks it’s in charge of the direction of history, it changes the essence of the hopeful Christian prayer from “Lord, come quickly” to “Give us more time.”  -Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw, Jesus for President, p. 284

Recently I’ve heard a few different people share their desire for Jesus to delay His Second Coming because their friends and family aren’t saved yet. More than that, they want to see nations come to the saving knowledge of Christ before He steps again onto the world stage. Mostly I’ve smiled and agreed that I hope that Uncle Bill/the neighbor across the street/Rwanda receives the Savor unto salvation, but lately I’m questioning exactly how to respond.

It’s not that I’m not excited about evangelism. To the contrary, I fully expect our generation to see a worldwide harvest of souls that eclipses anything we’ve ever seen before–including the early church that saw 3000 and later 5000 people added to their community in a day. I’m hoping for at least a billion people to be touched by this move of God. And I want to be a laborer sent out into the harvest.

What concerns me is that while this desire sounds very compassionate, it’s not actually biblical.

Let me elaborate a bit. Scripture teaches us that Jesus desires everyone to be saved, however, we know that not all will be. We don’t know who will and who won’t, so it’s our job to work to share the Gospel with everyone we can while being a living witness of God’s love to the fallen world. At the same time, we read that the Holy Spirit inspired John to pen a prayer that goes, “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17). This is just one short example of the many times the apostles exhort the Church to anticipate the Lord’s coming. Even Jesus Himself told stories about His Second Advent to prepare the people to wait expectantly for Him.

Now, was this all a giant waste of time? Was Jesus wrong to prepare people to see Him again on the earth very soon after His death? Were the apostles wrong to encourage people to live lives that were ready for the End of the Age at any moment? Of course not. What Jesus and the apostles were doing was instilling a quality of life that can only be lived in the waiting–as opposed to in the settling down and occupying. Many of us live as landowners instead of pilgrims on the earth. We’re busy building huge mansions instead of preparing for His return.

Will Jesus return soon (as in our generation), or will He wait another 2000 years? Who will be right? I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s better to be obedient more that be right. And we can’t let our compassion be greater than that of Jesus’. We must extend love, grace and mercy up until the very end, but we can’t let our desires and emotions eclipse those of the Lord Himself.

You see, one thing you must realize is that there are those on the earth right now who need a Judge. Young girls sold into human trafficking need someone to intervene on their behalf. And when we say that we want Him to wait to come back, we step into the place of judge to determine the best application of justice and mercy. We put ourselves in His place. And that’s not okay.

I think one underlying reason that some people feel they have to ask the Lord to delay is that they believe a certain amount of people must be saved or that a certain percentage of the nations must come under His leadership before He will return. These are mostly called postmillennialist, which just means a view of end-times events that says the earth must experience a sort of golden age of peace and righteousness before Christ comes again. Again, this sounds nice, but it’s not actually Biblical. In my opinion, it’s more of an assumption based on a line of logic that follows from a certain way to read prophecy. Confused? You’re in good company.

Without going into full detail about conflicting views of eschatology, I’d simply like to recommend that we read our Bibles at face value, pray the inspired prayers in the Bible as the apostles prayed them, look for His coming in anticipation, and trust Him to figure out how exactly everyone who is supposed to get saved will be saved (as we continue to labor with Him in His harvest).

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Exodus Cry

Exodus Cry: The Call to Battle from Exodus Cry on Vimeo

Just had an ah-ha moment

Just a quick thought from George Eldon Ladd (and then a couple of my own):

“If Jesus was sure that the end was to occur in the present generation, he was in effect setting a date for the time of the end; for in terms of the centuries of redemptive history, the identification of the particular generation when the end would occur amounts to rather precise knowledge of the time of the end….However, Jesus had just asserted that he did not know when the end would occur; this knowledge the Father had reserved to himself” (The Presence of the Future, pp. 320-321).

This is an interesting point.  Many a preterist have used Mark 13:30 to “prove” that Jesus had His generation in mind when He was describing what would befall the earth just before His return.  However, as Ladd points out, Jesus says in Mark 13:32 that not even He knows the date nor the hour.  So which is it?  Did He know or didn’t He?

In an hour of history when those who disagree with the premillennial outlook love to roast them with the date-setting skewer, it’s surprising to realize that’s exactly the mold into which Jesus is forced when someone holds the preterist position!

(For the uninitiated, premils take “this generation shall by no means pass away” to mean that the generation that is alive at the time of the beginning of the troubles described would remain on the earth through its duration to see it through to the end.)

Any thoughts?

Bickle’s Prophetic Dream

The following are the notes to Friday’s Encountering God Service from IHOP-KC. Mike Bickle recounts a dream he had the night before, and the implications for believers preparing for the Lord’s return.

Mike Bickle – 2/13/2009 – Prophetic Dream

Eternal Perspective

“Why do we not speak with that same simplicity, that same urgency and that same absoluteness [about eternity]? Perhaps we do not believe it as absolutely as Paul did, nor do we live as if we believe it. We are simply not that occupied with the things that are eternal, and therefore we are unable to persuade men. We need to press mankind to come to terms with eternity, even though they will accuse us of being dogmatic, narrow-minded and intolerant, and yet that will be enough to intimidate many of us to silence. There is nothing more embarrassing and intimidating to the modern Christian than to be considered narrow and dogmatic. It did not, however, intimidate Paul. Eternity is not a narrow concept, and the world needs to be disturbed by people who cannot contain themselves, who are beyond the issue of taste, politeness and good manners, who burn with the reality of eternity, and who take every opportunity to express the things that are Divine.”

-Art Katz, Apostolic Foundations

I think that if we really believed that eternity was breaking in upon us, we would (and should) speak with such conviction that it would seem like narrow-mindedness that we’re so definitive, especially to those with a life so rooted in the here and now. The problem with a toned-down, “everything will pan out” eschatology is that you really don’t have to do anything about it. It’s simply a doctrine you believe–you only agree with it in your head. This sounds very Western Christianity to me, and it’s exactly the mindset I’m trying to break out of. If Jesus is coming soon, things must drastically change.

Josh