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.)
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1) reveals that He is authoritative in all things. Specifically, Revelation 6:3-4 tells us that Jesus is authoritative over war: “And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast [angel] say, ‘Come and see.’ And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” As we studied last week, the Antichrist will pretend to be a man of peace but will quickly – in just 3 ½ years! – begin to wage war on a worldwide scale. Why, though, does Jesus permit war? James 4:1-2 is clear: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your own lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not [good things], because ye ask not.” In other words, because we want our own way, we will inevitably clash with others, who also want their own way. Our penchant for sin (our “lusts”) cannot be changed by peace treaties or by rising prosperity. No, peace must come one individual at a time; only through personal trust in Jesus, “the Prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6), do we enter into present and eternal peace.