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) tells us specifically that He merits our worship: “Thou art worthy” (5:9). He is worthy of our praise for His perfect character and of our thanksgiving for His specific actions. One such act is His taking of the scroll “sealed with seven seals” (5:1), the deed to all things on earth. This dominion was given to the human race (as an aside, this is the only race the Bible ever mentions; the current 3-6 racial categories are manmade and are really an attack on the truth that we are created in God’s image – see Genesis 1:27), as we studied Saturday, but lost due to our sin (Genesis 3:17-19). It is no surprise that Satan claims dominion, “for he is a lair, and the Father of it” (John 8:44). In Matthew 4:8-10, Satan offered to give everything in this world to Jesus if He would “fall down and worship” the Devil. Of course, Jesus refused “the prince of this world” (John 12:31), for, as the great preacher A. W. Tozer pointed out, Satan is no more than “a squatter – an alien usurper of dominion throughout the earth, even though he [does] not hold the title deed.” Revelation 5:7 is clear: “And He [Jesus] came and took the book out of the right hand of Him [Who] sat upon the throne.” Satan has never had his thieving hand on the seven-sealed scroll of dominion. Only Jesus is worthy to hold and open this deed of dominion.