"Have a nice day!" Or in the
terms of Clint Eastwood, "Make my day!"
These are just a couple salutations we use, good and bad to close our
conversations. But those closings would not be appropriate for the Creator of
the Universe, the Savior of mankind, for His last words as he closes the canon
of scripture and begins what we call the church age. He chose these two
sentences, packed with meaning for anyone who would read then as His salutation
for the remainder of time as we understand it.
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to
testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and Offspring of
David, the Bright and Morning Star." (Revelation 22:16)
"I, Jesus, (His given human name, meaning Savior) have sent my angel (messenger, personal or
impersonal agents) to testify (proclaim or announce)
to you (the individual believer or non believer, or mankind) these things in the churches (the community
of believers, the Body of Christ)."
It all sort of flows except for what "things"?
Does it mean all that follows, or just the next sentence. Does it mean what
precedes, but how much? Could it mean the few paragraphs that include these
statements, the whole Book of Revelation, the New Testament, the Old Testament,
or all of Scripture?
If we look at the word testify in conjunction with angel we see that all
things that proclaim that Jesus is Savior are in context His angels. That
includes the full canon of Scripture as well as the divisions we have
introduced. It also include all pastors, teachers and believers that have
"testified" to all of mankind subsequent to this statement. We see as
with Jesus Christ himself, God making a statement within time and space, for
all time an space.
So just what is that statement, in context, the whole message, just in case
we would like to get it right? If not for our own sake, for the sake of the
gospel and the risen Christ.
We see it proclaimed briefly in the red (here
green) words in the paragraph that begins in verse 12. Verses 14 and 15
are in red in my NIV, black (here red) in my
NKJV, but they still testify to the authority of all Scripture, of God's grace
in choosing a people for himself, a called out bunch, which we call the church,
God's covenant people throughout all time.
"And behold I am coming quickly, and My
reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha
and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." (12,
13)
Blessed are those who do His Commandments,
that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the
gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral
and murders, and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
(14, 15)
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify
to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and Offspring of David, the
Bright and Morning Star." (16)
Verses 12 and 13 are quite clear. "And
behold I (Jesus) am coming quickly
(in the context of God's timing), and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone
according to his work (that is
all of mankind, believer and non believer alike, respectively referenced in
verses 14 and 15). I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the Beginning and the End the First and the Last." (Triple redundant statements that this includes all
of time, from Adam to the last person born.)
Blessed are those who do His Commandments,
that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the
gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral
and murders and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
In these verses we see two rewards. One reward relates to those who tried to
do His commandments, or did within the provision of His grace as Savior, they
are given the tree of life and entry into the eternal city of peace, Jerusalem
(Revelation 21:1-5). The other reward in the passage is given those who sought
not to do His commandments. They are rewarded by forever being outside the
eternal city. There are two distinct peoples, forever separate. No more will we
be able to change the testament of our lives. One is the testament of eternal
life. The other is the testament of judgement (Revelation 20:11-15). We will
come back to this again after we look at the last part of verse 16)
"I am the Root and Offspring of David,
the Bright and Morning Star."
Notice Jesus (Savior) claims not only to be the root, or claiming David as
his descendant, but He in turn claims to be also David's Offspring. Through
this statement we see the fulfillment of the Messiah. Fully sent from God, as
God, yet being fully human in the direct lineage of the human David, the great
king of Israel.
The Bright and Morning Star is what is really interesting. In Genesis 1:3-5
we see the perfect introduction of this concept. "Then
God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw the light,
that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the
light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning
were the first day."
On the first day, darkness proceeds light, light comes in the morning.
Notice that there is only a concept of time in the abstract. Days are counted
by evening and mornings. We will not go into that further at this time for it
only will distract from the central message. Notice And
God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the
darkness. At the close of the canon of scripture we again see, this
time in God's highest creation, man; the separation of light and darkness in
the rewards that Jesus brings. This time however, we can say with God in
eternal fellowship. "This is good!"
Briefly, throughout the whole of scripture you see the goodness of morning.
The chorus taken from Psalm 5 comes to mind:
Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
Harken unto the voice of my cry,
My King and My God.
For unto you will I pray.
My voice thou shall hear in the morning.
O Lord, in the morning, will I direct my prayer
Unto you and look up.
Specifically relating to morning star, we also see in 2 Peter 1:19-21: And so we have the prophetic word confirmed,which you
do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your heart; knowing this first, that no prophecy of
Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will
of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 2:26-28: And he who overcomes, and
keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations -
'He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'-
as I also have received from My Father, and I
will give him the morning star.
We know now that the morning star is really the planet Venus, reflecting the
light from the sun to earth in a similar fashion as the moon reflects the light
of the sun to help illuminate the night sky. In Bible times, people I presume,
thought of it as a star unto itself. However it really makes no difference in
the Biblical application. As the morning star, Venus is never visible more that
three hours before sunrise. Therefore in the darkest, coldest portion of the
night, the morning star rises, giving to all people the promise of a new day. A
day when darkness is arrested and meaningful creative work can be accomplished
within the goodness of light. It does not really matter whether that light is
its own source, as the ancients believed, or is the reflected light of the sun
as we enlightened moderns know as a fact. The essence of the light is the same.
That light of the morning star carries the promise of the new day ahead, both
literally and prophetically.
This brings us back to look at the context of the rewards. The light that
shines in our hearts is the illumination of the Holy Spirit, it is the promise
sent by Jesus to confirm, comfort and to help (along with a whole list of other
adjectives) those, he has chosen to be drawn from darkness into the light. In
this whole context, being outside the eternal city, is a reward, however
strange that may seem. That is why as you willingly through your personal
choices respond to that light, you begin to understand that it is God's grace
alone, through that same Jesus who's final words we have been looking at. He
alone, as in creation's story, has brought us into that eternal city and has
allowed us to taste the first fruits of that eternal tree of life. Without that
grace, that illumination, we are quite happy to be children of darkness. But as
new creations of His light, we seek to bring light and dispel the darkness,
just like the light of Venus we now know as a reflection of the Sun's
brilliance.
Now as I alluded to last week the great difference between this theology and
Roman Catholic theology and much of evangelical protestant faith is something
quite blatant in this passage. In closing let us look at it again. Do you see
it?
"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify
to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and Offspring of David, the
Bright and Morning Star."
Other than the use of his given name Jesus, Joshua, or Yesuha meaning
Savior, the cross is not mentioned. On the cross, the work of salvation was
finished. Eternity was secured. The sacrifice for our sins was and is complete
for ever. It is I believe wrong to sacrifice Him again as is done in the Mass,
or to bring our own filthy works to him as our holy substitute. All of these
change entirely the emphasis. It is not what would Jesus do? As good as that
may sound. But here we look at what Jesus said. In the total context of all the
messengers through time. It is what Jesus did that is important. It is that
distinction that separates the darkness from the light.
To paraphrase Genesis 1:3-5 in this context we have: "Then God said, 'Let there be light, My Word'; and there was
the light of the Word. And God saw the Word, that it was good; and God by His
grace divided the light from the darkness. God called the light, a New Day, and
the darkness He called eternal Night. So the evening and the morning were the
Last Day.
Amen!
God has been enlarging my vision (and many of you know how I really dislike
using that word) but in the right context vision is the proper word. About a
month ago, I did an internet search for another ship. Specifically, for a ship
that had sailing roots, for reasons that I again will not share here since they
were covered earlier in this series, other than to mention that it is an issue
of stewardship. The first place I looked had one, a casino ship that would have
to be converted. That was the only one I found, on the whole world wide web,
but if you ever had the opportunity to visit or see it you would not forget the
experience. Two weeks ago, I requested more information, and as usual things
have quickly became quite difficult, some relating to a wrong efax number. Only
yesterday did it begin to work properly. In any event, this will raise the
amount of funds required, but it also provides an opportunity to do some what I
would call "Business Ecology" and "Creation Science"
cruises. Preliminary projections of revenue indicate that 2-3 months of these
would pay all the ministry overhead for the year, so it looks like a worthwhile
adventure. The one thing that bothers me of course is 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.
Only God can raise those resources of the level required. Please pray for His
leading and for those provisions in His will.