Gems in Revelation - Part 124

Gems in the book of Revelation

Part 124 - Revelation 1:5-6

What Jesus did and does.

To complete his great statements of the worth of Jesus in these first few verses of his book John describes something of what Jesus has done and is still doing. He lists 4 things he does or did: he loves them, he gave his life blood to free them from their sins, he welcomed them into his kingdom and he established them as his priests.

He loves us. The word ‘love’ appears only 3 times in the whole of this book as something about his attitude towards us. But … if a mother does not tell her very young baby that she loves it but spends her whole day looking after it, feeding it, cleaning it, rocking it to sleep etc. would we say she did not love it? Of course not. Her actions speak of her love louder than words. So it is with the Lord Jesus towards us.
He gave his life blood that we might be freed from our sins just as the ancient Israelites were set free from Egypt that they might travel through the wilderness to the promised land. We call that redemption. We have been the subjects of redemption and have a journey to make and a wonderful destination to look forward to.

He has made the world’s most unlikely kingdom out of us! Yes, we, you and I, are citizens of the Lord’s own kingdom. We have(at least) 2 passports. One is that of the country in which we live; the other is a passport for heaven. We do not need a visa to go there; we cannot be refused entry for the king of the kingdom will vouch for us at the point of entry. Finally for his fourth attribute John says we are now priests. All of us - not just those that wear special coloured clothes and funny high hats. We have direct access to the Lord of all. We do not have to go through any intermediary, no one is a superior being with better access to Jesus and Father God than us.

To confirm his ability to confer these glorious things upon little you and me John describes him as the Cloud Rider (1:7). That was an Old Testament description of the Lord God himself. King David describes God that way in Psalm 18:6, 9 - 13. Isaiah describes the Lord as ‘riding on a swift cloud’ (19:1). In his prophetic vision of Jesus Daniel sees him that way in his 7:13. What a God we have in the person of Jesus - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! (1:6)

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