Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Jesus is authoritative over world leaders, including the coming Antichrist: “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts [angels] saying, ‘Come and see.’ And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” We briefly referenced II Thessalonians 2:8-12 yesterday: “And then shall that Wicked [lawless one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit [breath] of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a [the] lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Two things stand out to me in this passage. First, the Antichrist will perform miracles: the Greek words for “power,” “signs,” and “wonders” are the same words used of Jesus’ miracles in Acts 2:22. These will not be magic tricks or sleights of hand; the word “lying” instead means that these unusual works will be employed to lead people astray to “believe [the] lie” that the Antichrist is actually the Savior (the word “the” is the literal translation of the definite determiner found in the original Greek). Second, because men reject Jesus and receive the Antichrist, God will give them what they want (Psalm 106:15): they will believe the big lie that the Antichrist is Christ. This act of divine punishment is thus absolutely appropriate and again reveals that our Savior God is authoritative.