I
am very cautious about using illustrations that can be taken the wrong way. However,
meeting with God in his word each day is aptly pictured as a journey. It is a
journey of getting to know God better each day than we have ever known him
before. It is a journey of understanding, seeing things on one day that were
simply not the lessons for the days before, and yet each day’s step forward in
knowledge is only possible because of yesterday’s adventure with God.
This
morning the journey-aspect of relationship with God became especially clear to
me. For weeks I have been digging in the quarry of Revelation 7:1-8, which
presents the imagery of the sealing of the 144,000. We have looked at this from
a variety of angles[1]
in the belief that God has deliberately given us pictures that are easy to
remember during times when the trials and tribulations of life make it too
difficult to recall the words of doctrine. As is true of all pictures (speaking
as an avid hobbyist photographer), it is even more meaningful that the pictures
of the book of Revelation are worth thousands of words to the soul when we have
trouble hanging on to any words at all.
Today’s
step-forward in the journey began with God showing me another expression of his
exceptional grace towards someone like me. It went something like this.
Yesterday
I preached on Jesus as the Messiah, sealed by God.[2] After previously considering the way seals marked a document as
genuine, authoritative, binding, and irrevocable, we considered how Jesus is
the genuine Savior, filled with the authority of God, making a way of life that
is binding on all, offered as an irrevocable covenant that measures all people.
If the 144,000 is the Church, all believers through all
time, and these people are sealed,[3] then there has to be some way that we identify that
these people are the genuine children of God, given authority to be the church
in the world, carrying a message that is binding on all nations through all
time, with an irrevocable message of good news and warning.
All of a sudden, this sounded like much more than a message
of security to the church. This is a message of security on a mission. This is
not only about the church being safe and secure no matter what it goes through.
It is also about the church having a seal upon it that gives it the security to
go out and get into all the trouble that it may, knowing that it alone bears
the seal of God, and so goes into the world conquering and to conquer.[4]
When I look at this through the reminder that the book of
Revelation is written to God’s servants,[5] and the 144,000 who are sealed are “the servants of our God”,[6] it all comes together in a picture that the seal
of God is double-sided. One side is to show us the security the servants of God
have in the Lord Jesus Christ. The other side shows us the mandate these
servants have to serve the purposes of God in this world. Both the good news
that is given for the church, and the good news that is expressed from the
church, are based on us being the servants of our God. He takes care of his
servants, and he commissions his servants to join him in his church-building
work.[7]
As the
servants of God, seeing the things that must soon take place, we receive this as
comfort for ourselves, that God will care for those who are his servants.
However, we also see this as a challenge to ourselves, that we are here in this
world to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, and carry out his plans and purposes
through the Church. We are here to receive the good news for ourselves, and to
go out serving Jesus Christ in the proclamation of this message to others.
This makes
so much sense when we remember that Jesus has, “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.”[8]When we look
at life as the kingdom of God, we see that this kingdom is protected by the
King, and we see that this kingdom goes out conquering and to conquer, seeking
to win people over to this straight and narrow path that is the way to the
heavenly paradise.
When we look
at life as the priesthood of all believers, we see that this identity as
priests of God gives us the security that we ourselves have access to the
divine presence through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the
responsibility to stand before God on behalf of others.
It is clear
that God wants us to know that this is of grace. It is undeserved. The only way
we can be the servants of God to the fullest effect is if we understand that we
were made into God’s servants by the grace offered in the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and we are given effectiveness in serving God only by grace. There is
nothing about us that deserves to be a servant of God who is cared for by the
King of the heavenly kingdom, or to deserve the status in the world as the
144,000, the Church, the children of God who alone hold the message of hope
that the world needs. It is all of grace.
Now, it took
me all day to fit in pockets of time to write this, an adventure of its own. However,
my journey in the things God taught me this morning has me anticipating another
step forward tomorrow. His mercies, and his grace, are new every morning.[9]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~
in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] “a variety of angels”
was okay with spell-check, but not really what I wanted to convey.
[2] John 6:27
[3] Ephesians 4:30
[4] Revelation 6:1-2,
interpreting the rider on the white horse as the Church that goes out
conquering and to conquer throughout the whole of the last hour, fulfilling the
wonderful declaration of Romans 8:37 that “in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
[5] Revelation 1:1
[6] Revelation 7:3
[7] Matthew 16:18
[8] Revelation 1:6
[9] Lamentations 3:22-24
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