Category: Devotions

He is going to make all things new! v5
Revelation 21
This has got to be the promise of all promises!
What is He going to make new?

1. Creation will be made new.
This world as we know it is dying. Last year the WWF produced a report entitled ‘Life on Earth is dying’.
It reported that the number of vertebrates – mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish – on earth has fallen by more than half since 1970. We know the world as we know it is changing and not for the benefit. Seasons are confused, pollution and disease has increased, this is certainly not paradise.
But there is a new earth coming. God will make what we know new.
2. Our spiritual brokenness will be made new.
And as John saw the prostitute, Babylon, as the world system, he now sees Jerusalem, a picture of the Church, prepared, perfected for Christ.
He makes all things new. Including the shame, the guilt and the sin of our lives, all of it will have gone forever.
3. Our bodies will be made new
No more death, or mourning or crying or pain …
This body that we know now will be changed. It dies and it grieves and it cries. If all of that is gone then what is left is perfect. Our minds perfect, our bodies perfect.
Some today have struggled all their life with disability, some have faced accidents and are never the same again and some spend the last few years of their life crippled by disease. The problem is temporary for God will make our bodies new.
4. Our relationship with Him will be new.
“The dwelling of God is with men …”
There are times when we feel so far from God, we get frustrated because we cannot see Him. But there comes a day when that is no more.
This earth new!
This life new,
This body new!
This God-relationship new!

John retells the Revelation as a pre-millennialist.
Which simply means Christ comes back before a thousand year reign of peace.
Revelation 20
This chapter shows the millennium.
However, this revelation sits in a canon of the rest of the New Testament which also speaks of Christ’s return and with us not taking what John sees as a time-line then it is impossible to say what order it will all happen. Is it a literal 1000 years? Was it literally 30 minutes (8:1)? 3 and a half days? 5 months? 1260 days? 42 months? John says so, but that doesn’t mean it is literal.
So what happens in the millennium?
The martyrs reign.
That’s you and me.
The martyrs are not an elite group. Yes John sees those who had been beheaded which is poignant for us today as for his generation.
But in his vision all faithful Christians have been killed, that’s what happened. It still does in parts of the world.
So we reign with Christ. We do so without the presence of evil.
What we don’t know is if there were unbelievers on earth in John’s vision. If so, do they become saved? If not, the purpose of the 1,000 years is a mystery.
Then Satan is released and again he attacks and again is defeated!

No matter how many times he attacks, he is always defeated!

Those whose name is not in the book of life will not live.
So did the unsaved dead come back to life to die again?

The lake of fire is not there for human beings though people do go there, it is rather there for Satan, death and hades, they are destroyed.

In Christ we are called to reign, it is what Adam and Eve lost for us. Though we struggle at times to hold on to that rulership of our life and often we are ruled by outside forces, yet, we know, that in the end all of this will pale into insignificance as we reign with Christ in the millennium!!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
For the Lord God Almighty reigns
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For the Lord God Almighty reigns
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The kingdom of this world
Is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of His Christ, and of His Christ;
And He shall reign for ever and ever,
For ever and ever, forever and ever,

King of kings, and Lord of lords,
King of kings, and Lord of lords,
And Lord of lords,
And He shall reign,
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings, forever and ever,
And Lord of lords,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Revelation 19

Summed up in the word Hallelujah!

Why?

The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has come. He is here!

Yesterday we celebrated Palm Sunday when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem to the sound of Hallelujahs and Hosannas.

But that was nothing compared to what He will hear as He comes again to this earth.

Hallelujah!

Over and Out!
Revelation 18
Up till now it was the future. But now John is in that future and is seeing what was said about the world’s order come true, she has fallen.
Confirming her real crime not being the literal drunkenness and sexual immorality rather her luxurious extravagance, John hears of how her trade and economy has come crashing down.
And it will all happen in 1 hour, v17.
1929, the Wall Street crash when 30 billion dollars had been lost, twice the national debt, it was then the U.S. moved into their Great Depression. One observer in Wall Street wrote how “traders hollered and screamed, they clawed at one another’s collars. It was like a bunch of crazy men. Every once in a while, another tumble and you’d see some poor devil collapse and fall to the floor.”
It is a shadow of what is to come.
John is brought back into the present, v4, with a call from heaven to God’s people not to be caught up into such extravagant living and in v20 to Rejoice you saints, apostles and prophets.

So let us leave the pressure of this world to be an extravagant worshipper and let us be the ones who live (saints), who go (apostles) and who speak (prophets) for God, who calls us to rejoice with heaven that soon the old order will pass away.

Are you astonished?
Revelation 17
As we approach the final revelation of John we are introduced to two cities personified as a woman, Babylon, Rome, the great prostitute and Jerusalem, the Virgin. It is the world and the Church.
John is taken into a desert and is shown the truth of the woman. She is blasphemous. She is the epitome of selfish wealth and extravagance, of hedonism. She turns people from God. The ones she cannot turn, she kills, v6, their blood runs from her mouth. It is this violence that is the major focus that the angel wants John to see and one other thing … Her deception, v2.
Then something astonishing happens!
v6 John is astonished.
He is tempted to worship the woman! That’s the meaning of the word astonished!
He is on the verge of being deceived by the power, the riches and the lavishness of the world he lived in.
The angel quickly spots this and pulls him together questioning him “Why John?” “John, don’t be enamoured,” is basically what is going on here, v 6-7.
Don’t be astonished because:
This beast she rides ONCE WAS.
Your God WAS
This beast NOW IS NOT
Your God IS
This beast WILL COME
Your God IS TO COME
See the difference. If you haven’t:
This beast she rides will go to his DEATH
But your God WILL NOT!
John, you need wisdom in this world, v9. We all do.

The rest of the chapter of 7 heads, 7 hills, 7 kings, the 8th king, the 10 horns, 10 kings are all about this:
God is using the world, the governments of the world, the ideologies of the word, they are all part of His-story, He is behind it all.
Today, pray for wisdom to know your God, to be able to resist the Oulu of the deceptive world which says you want/need more.
Be careful what astonishes you! Let it be God only.

Keep your clothes on!
Revelation 16
Body sores, sea and river pollution, sun scorching people, darkness and pain, demonic attacks and a final shaking of the earth. Sounds terrifying. It is what John saw and it is what is to come.
The voices:-
1. A loud voice, “Go” v1. These last plagues are instigated by God. In a future Exodus, these plagues are not to free His people from slavery under Pharaoh but to cause people to sit up, look to Him and repent. This voice will speak again.
2. The Angels voice and the voice from the altar, “You are just”, v5,7. In case anyone thinks the earth will not deserve what it gets, the pronouncement is, God is just. Agreement comes from the altar, “Yes we agree!”. And if anyone wee to dare question, we hear His name God Almighty, there is no one above Him.
3. John’s voice, prophesying the outcome, v14. He identifies that behind the world’s wickedness is a demonic world. But the outcome is obvious because God Almighty is victorious.
4. The voice of Jesus, in similar terms as in chapter 2 and 3, v15, “I’m nearly here, keep your clothes on, don’t abandon God now, Armageddon is coming and Grace will be over.”
5. A loud voice from the throne, v17, “It is done.” The end comes at Armageddon. Probably an imaginary place and not a battle. God going into an end time battle is laughable. He doesn’t need to fight. He speaks and Babylon is fallen, the world as we know it is no more.
So what?
The world will get worse.
During the end time disasters there will still be time to repent, for a time.
God is just, fair and always wins.
Jesus says He is coming and when He does it will be quick and sudden. You will have no time to get ready, so if you undress from your faith, your love and passion for Jesus, you might not be ready. Sleep with your clothes on.

It’s not just about prayer.
Revelation 15
It’s about presence. Your presence.
That is what will usher in the kingdom of God.
Here we are on the brink of 7 plagues that John sees coming into the world.
The power of God carried by the 7 Angels in chapter 8 was brought about by the prayers of the saints. Here the people of God are not praying, they are standing. They have overcome the enemy, the false worship and remain marked by the Spirit and not the beast.
We underestimate the effect of remaining. Of standing. Unmoved, undeterred, focused.
This week I went to a long lost friends church building, I have not seen him for 14 years. His church building is not what it used to be. It is now full of car wrecks and parts. But the same prophetic text that was there on opening day was still hanging behind the scraps of metal. Acts 18: 9-10 “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” If only he had kept that message in his heart. If only he had done not, kept on, not swerved, but stayed. I so wish he had remained standing. I learnt this week that he died a broken man 7 years ago.
Where would any of us be without Jesus?

I was lost but Jesus found me/ found the sheep that went astray/Threw his loving arms around me/Drew me back into His way.
Yes I’ll sing the wondrous story/ of the Christ who died for me/Sing it with the saints in glory/gathered by the crystal sea.

Your presence can be enough. Remain standing. Overcome.
I’ll see you by the seashore my friend.

The vision of John is definitely set in a violent context where many of his Church members are experiencing persecution and martyrdom. He has also revealed the 144,000 as the martyrs of the Israelites and the great multitude on chapter 7 that no one could count. But here in this chapter everyone who dies within the Christian faith, not just as martyrs, are blessed.
Revelation 14
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.”
I’m thinking today of an old lady called Margaret, who passed away last week and of who I will be conducting the funeral for next week.
I know she is blessed today!
It’s not just the martyrs who are blessed but John sees and states that from that moment on it is all who die, even of a natural death, if they die as a Christian they are blessed. A Jewish text speaks not of martyrdom when it states, “at the time of man’s departure, neither silver nor gold nor precious stones nor pearls go with him, but only the Law and good works.”
Our money is left behind, our material possessions etc. But not our achievements, not our work. Our accomplishments are taken with us when we enter into the Lord’s rest.
Margaret though resting from her work is now benefiting from being blessed by the rewards of that work.
Make sure you are doing the works of the Lord.

666 so what?
Revelation 13
It is a mark of allegiance that is publicly seen, everyone knows who you are walking with, you have given over your heart to the beast, v8; materialism and greed are all important to you, v17.
So what?
But this is not you, it never will be, for you have another mark that is publicly seen, you are “marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance,” (Ephesians 1:13-14)

The dragon, the beast and the false prophet.
A satanic trinity, involving Satan, the Anti-Christ and a ‘voice/breath’ of evil. The Anti-Christ is probably not one human being, there seems to have been many in every generation, but there will be a final one for sure. The false prophet is probably a general spirit throughout the world.
So what?
Remind yourself today, the beast is fatally wounded, the promise of a “crushed head” (Genesis 3:15) happened at the Cross. Christ and the beast were slain, the beast is still alive though wounded. Yet Christ is alive victorious!

The Evil Ministry
Is to blaspheme God, v5-6; persecute and kill Christians, v7-8,15; deceive the world, v4,11; and receiving worship, v15.
So what?
Our ministry, of Christ, our response is certainly not that of a certain small group of Pakistani Christians who last week burnt alive 2 Muslims mistakenly thinking they were the jihad bombers. How dreadful a response!
But no matter what comes you way, it is patience, endurance, faithfulness, waiting for God to intervene and He will. Leave the vengeance to God.

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