Thursday: Christ in Revelation – Part 2
Read Revelation 1:10-18. What does Jesus say about Himself there?
Jesus appears in these verses, standing in the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
The revelation of Him in this role was so great that John fell at His feet in fear. Jesus, ever comforting, tells him not to be afraid and points to Himself as the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last — references to His eternal existence as God. Later He talks about His death and resurrection and the hope that His resurrection brings. Jesus has the keys to “Death and Hades”. In other words, Jesus here is saying to John what He said to Martha at the death of her brother, words that John also recorded: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NKJV) .
With Martha and now with John, Jesus points us to the hope of the resurrection, the culmination and climax of the Christian faith. Without this hope, what hope is there?
Read Revelation 22:7, Revelation 22:12-13. What do these verses reveal about Jesus, as well?
“Christ Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Genesis of the Old Testament, and the Revelation of the New. Both meet together in Christ. Adam and God are reconciled by the obedience of the second Adam, who accomplished the work of overcoming the temptations of Satan and redeeming Adam’s disgraceful failure and fall”. — Ellen G. White Comments, The SDA Bible Commentary , vol. 6, pages 1092, 1093. Yes, Jesus is the beginning and the end. He created us in the beginning, and He will recreate us in the end.
From start to finish, as it teaches us about not only history but about end-time events, the book of Revelation is still the Apocalypsis Iesou Christou, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, whatever else we may study about final events, Jesus Christ must be the center of it all.
| What are ways, every day, that we can keep Jesus the center of our lives? |
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Pray without ceasing!
In revelation Jesus has done everything for us to know how to prepare to meet him during second advent.
Prayer, bible study and witnessing daily.
I turned around to see - Some times our focus is in the wrong place. sometimes we have to turn.
I turned I saw - If you are willing to turn you will see.
In contemplating preparation for end time, we need to contemplate Christ hours before His crusification. Right after He was incouraged by Greeks who said: "we would see Jesus" He said this: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
John 12:24-26.
How can we serve Christ? I do believe by drawing men to Him. By drawing men to Him, does this not make it easy to hate our life in this world and thus keepeth it unto eternal life? So what do we have to do to honor the Father. Like the wheat we must die(be born again, baptism of the Holy Spirit daily).