Day 20 (Friday): Revelation 5:8-14, 7:9-12
Today’s Passage
Read the passage – Revelation 5:8-14, 7:9-12
Revelation has several pictures of Christ and the nations. Salvation belongs to Jesus and through his blood he has ransomed people from every “tribe and language and people and nation”.
Questions to Consider
- How do these passages in Revelation encourage us in terms of our future with God?
- What do they tell us about the results of sharing the gospel?
Prayer
- Lord may our invitations reflect the love and hope found in You.
- Thank God that we have eternal life. Thank him for the many people from the nations who have come to him and will come to him. In particular ask God to bless the elderly in our neighbourhoods and that they would soften their hearts towards Jesus.
Go Deeper
Tim Chester, Revelation for You, God’s Word for You (The Good Book Company, 2019), 59–62.
In 5:4 John moves from being an observer to become a participant in the drama. And we, too, are invited to share John’s grief at a disordered, suffering world without anyone to take control or transform the chaos. Then he is introduced to the suffering Messiah. The chapter moves from weeping to “a new song” of praise (v 9). And that is the movement we need to make day by day as we reflect on our world and then reflect on it again in the light of the cross. We’re right to weep when we see the brokenness of our world on the television news or in the lives of our friends. But we’re also right to sing when by faith we see the triumph of the crucified Lamb.What is the command given in the chapter? It is there in verse 5: “Weep no more; behold …” (ESV). This is the response John wants from his readers: to weep no more, but instead to look to the crucified King.There’s a message here for our culture. Don’t be fooled by what you can see and what you can’t see. It might appear that Christianity is yesterday’s news, that science has rendered Jesus irrelevant. But God is on the throne. On earth in history Jesus looks like a slaughtered lamb. But in heaven he is enthroned, and one day he will be enthroned on earth.And there’s a message here for the church: don’t give up. The defeats of history are not the last word. The ultimate defeat was the cross. There it all ended in tears. But the command of Revelation 5 is “Weep no more”. We see the church scorned. We see Christianity in decline. We see our culture moving away from biblical norms. But John says, Behold the Lamb on the throne.And there’s a message for you. Maybe what you see are the enticements of this world—career, sex, money. It’s so hard to live for Christ when we see temptations all around us. The fact is, we can only sin if we suffer from a radical loss of perspective—when what sin offers seems better than what God offers. But that’s what happens to us day after day. We lose perspective. John says, “Behold”. Look to the Lamb on the throne—the One who died for you and the One who offers you glory. “This is the victory that has overcome the world,” says John in 1 John 5:4, “even our faith.”Or maybe you’re weeping. Your heart is broken. The pressure or the loss is overwhelming. We’ve got to read the “Weep no more” with the “Behold”. This is not a call to get a grip and pull yourself together. John is not telling you off if you cry into your pillow tonight. He’s inviting you to “behold”—to see the Lamb on the throne. He’s inviting you to look at the great power in the universe, the One who reigns over history, and see the One who loved you and gave himself for you. And he invites you to see in the enthronement of the Lamb that your story is not yet over. There’s another chapter, and that chapter is glory.Christ is worthy to reign because he was slain, and that reign takes place through the mission of the church. Mission is the meaning of the cross.Christ died so that there might be people from every people group among his people—from inner-city neighbourhoods to remote tribes. Mission to the ends of the earth is the outworking of the cross. Think about the language of “purchase”. Christ has purchased specific people from every nation, and so they now belong to him. Our job is to gather them. Our commission is not just to make disciples; it is to make disciples from every nation. If we’re content to leave unreached people unreached then we’ve missed the point of the atonement. It’s not that God needs our involvement. After all, everything in these chapters highlights God’s sovereign power. But in his love, God invites us to be part of his great plan to bring salvation to the nations.But there’s a second sense in which mission is the meaning of the cross. Christ died to make us “a kingdom and priests”. It is, as we saw in 1:5–6, an allusion to the missional identity of Israel (Exodus 19:4–6). Israel was to make God known to the world as a light to the nations. John says Christians are now that priestly kingdom. Christ died to make us a missionary people. So, again, if we are content to leave people unreached, then we’ve missed the point of the atonement.Reaching the unreached peoples of the world is a task that Christ has given to the church. It’s not simply a problem for mission agencies. It’s a challenge for you. What are you going to do about it?
