Passion For Jesus Ministries

With this glorious scene in mind, I believe that it is time for all of us to give ourselves in an unusual way in this hour to the study of the book of Revelation. Many of these types of questions lie dormant in the heart of every believer, waiting for the right moment to emerge. Hidden fears twist within the deep recesses of our soul, pangs of doubt stirring continually on the fringes of our thought life. For some, these fears and doubts live more on the forefront of their Christian experience - a grave uncertainty about the future and what it holds. 

 

There is a decided absence of the necessary anchors of truth, love, and confidence within the heart of the church in this hour. Thus, rather than confront the nature and person of Jesus as He is, we instead construct a framework of escape that dodges this critical issue.

 

There are large portions of the Word that are simply neglected in the daily study of the believer. These are the passages that men struggle to reconcile, the books that many dismiss as irrelevant in their seemingly harsh portrayal of an angry God and His disgust at sin and disobedience. Because many secretly feel that God interacts with them in a similar manner with similar emotions, they find it easier to listen to sermons and live the Christian life without ever confronting this God problem that plagues and frustrates their emotions. 

 

Thus, when it is time to dive into the book of Revelation, many shrink back with fear at the sights and sounds they are confronted with in regards to the seeming severity of God's dealings with sinful humanity. They then draw false comfort from a theology of escape that absolves them from ever having to study these rich passages, every word a window into discovering the beauty of Jesus in His leadership.

 

Before continuing on with the breathtaking drama that we began in the part one, it is absolutely necessary to stop and answer the above questions. 

 

We opened our drama with John passionately weeping over history's dilemma - nothing could change dramatically, in terms of the coming of the kingdom of God in fullness, until someone was found who was worthy to take the scroll from the Father. 

 

Would such a Man be found? As we have seen, One was found - the Jewish man who prevailed over the enemies of God as a slain Lamb. To study the nature of this Man is to be thrilled with the decision of the Father to hand Him this incredibly powerful scroll. To take a step back and go back to chapter four of the book of Revelation is also absolutely necessary. We must also become consumed by the understanding of the One who is seated on His throne. 

 

We must become obsessed with every word that describes Him and His throne room. No one should study the book of Revelation without becoming firmly established in chapters four and five. Love elevates the heart to another place when the phrases and descriptions begin to make sense to us. Confidence grows within as we become rooted and grounded in the personality and emotions of the Father who is seated on His throne, burning with unspeakable passion for each one of us.

 

The very character of God is expressed in all of its terrible beauty. We see, and are blinded by His stunningly bright, white, unapproachable jasper radiance, pure and untainted in its perfection. We tremble yet are stirred to love when we behold His fiery red sardius passion, a flame of jealous desire and longing for you and I to be with Him where He is like He is in His perfectly pure transcendent beauty. 

 

We are overwhelmed to tenderness and tears by the emerald rainbow around His throne, His glorious statement of life-giving mercy and mysterious tender kindness towards us. All that He does is motivated by passionate desire and tender mercy. All that will follow flows from His being and His unfathomably deep longings to be with us. All of His judgments are birthed from an impossibly pure and untainted perspective. And His Son who approaches Him is just like Him, and fully dedicated to presenting us to His Father pure and spotless, leading us tenderly and jealously in our weakness and brokenness. As this sinks on over days, months, and years, we become rooted, grounded, stable and secure in the character of God. We feel as if we could leap over a wall. We feel as if we could endure anything for love. Our heart becomes a burning reflection of the God we have interacted with through the lens of Revelation Four.

 

And then? Then, the rest of the book unfolds. The judgments are loosed on the nations of the earth. The beauty of the leadership of Jesus is revealed in the midst of the most intense and violent expression of judgment man has ever seen. 

 

What will this Man do with all of the authority that has been given to Him in judgment? He will shatter the nations in their rage. He will overthrow kingdoms. He will disrupt everything and all will be laid bare before Him. 

 

He will shake everything that can be shaken to make way for an unshakable kingdom. He will exercise the power that He receives with ferocity and zeal in His desire to remove all that wounds and destroys the human heart. It will cause all to pause and tremble at this seemingly new expression of the Lamb of God. Who is prepared to encounter Him this way, in the terror of His zeal and jealous passion?

 

He is preparing His Bride now. Today. He is preparing her (and you) for the moment of encounter that she would be fully ready to meet Her Husband as He is, not as she wants Him to be. By hungrily devouring the revealed Word in Revelation Four about the Father, we are preparing diligently and passionately to meet His Son. We are stabilizing our hearts to endure anything to see Him face to face. 

 

We are becoming, over time, radically abandoned, washed by the blood, empowered by our testimony, and coming into the place in which we truly do not love our lives - even to the death. For death has no power for the one fully in love, and He is working faithfully to complete the good work He began in you: to awaken a love as strong as death, a jealousy as cruel as the grave. As we say yes to the beauty of His leadership, we are both readying ourselves (Rev. 19:7) and being made ready (Phil. 2:12-13) for the rest of the book of Revelation.