Newsletter — October 29, 2023

The Revelation of Jesus Christ. So says verse one of the book of Revelation. So what do we learn of Jesus, our husband, just in that first chapter? Many revealing things!

For instance, Jesus reveals to us in verses 4–5 that he is one person of the three-person Godhead. Jesus is the faithful witness of the one who is, who was, and who is to come, as well as the firstborn of the dead by the power of the Spirit, and raised to be ruler of the kings of the land by the call of God and the Spirit’s indwelling. So he knows a thing or two about relationships and community; things he wants us to learn and practice here on earth in his Great Commission body.

After John’s doxology in verse 6, which is certainly a model for us, we find that Jesus is revealed also as the coming one. He is Yahweh in the flesh in the clouds, and all of Israel (tribes of the land) will judge correctly at his second coming in 70 AD that he is the Messiah whom they pierced upon the cross. They will understand they rejected God’s Messiah when he comes in final judgment of the Old Covenant, the sacrificial system of the temple, and the old oikumene world of Daniel 2. They will mourn their rejection of him who crushed those kingdoms by his stone that grows into a mountain kingdom that covers the world (cf. Isaiah 2).

Let us live with one another in the body as Jesus lives as part of the community of the Godhead, and let us praise him our Lord for his dominion he possesses over us his bride and over the world as King of kings!