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.)
Revelation 22:21 closes this prophetic book: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” This “grace” is God’s constant gift to us. A further example of His giving is found in His empowering of evangelists. Revelation 7:4 speaks of a large number of future Gospel preachers: “And I heard the number of them which were seated, an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.” This contingent has an enormous impact, as we find in verses 9-17. All of the believers mentioned here “came out of great tribulation”; many of them would have been influenced by the faithful message of the 144,000. Revelation 11:3-12 focuses on two specific evangelists who are much like the Old Testament prophets in words and in works. Their deaths and resurrections are particularly powerful manifestations of God’s grace. As we touched upon yesterday, Jesus goes even further in His grace by sending an angelic evangelist: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6). Since this empowerment of evangelists is clearly a result of “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” let us make sure that our churches are faithful today in preaching the good news of eternal salvation through faith in Him.