Lost Love
Read: Revelation 2:2-6; Luke 7:36-50 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (Rev. 2:4) In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, the main character, beset by the uncertainties swirling around his life and family, asks his wife, “Do you love me?” She replies, “Do I what? […]
Among the Lampstands
Read: Revelation 2:1; Matthew 18:18-20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. (Matt. 18:20) The Lord Jesus dictated seven letters to John for distribution among the churches of Asia Minor. Each letter is addressed to the “angel” of the church. Since angellos in Greek means “messenger,” it […]
What Jesus Looks Like Now
Read: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Revelation 1:12-17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. (Rev. 1:17) What’s your mental picture of Jesus? Some might think of a painting that once hung in many a church lounge, a portrait of an olive-skinned Jesus with brown hair and beard and a rather dreamy […]
Partners in Tribulation
Read: Revelation 1:4-9; John 16:25-33 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus . . . (Rev. 1:9) A key word in the book of Revelation is thlipsis, meaning distress, suffering, tribulation. John knew all about thlipsis, and so did the churches he […]
To Him Be Glory Forever
Read: Revelation 1:4-6; 5:1-14 . . . to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. (Rev. 1:6) In Greek, doxology means a “word of glory.” Doxologies are brief ascriptions of praise that Christians have used in worship since the very beginning. The salutation of Revelation 1:4-5 is Trinitarian: John offers his readers grace and […]
Blessed Reading, Blessed Hearing
Read: Revelation 1:1-3 Blessed is the one who reads . . . this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it. (v. 3) Jesus didn’t just rise from the dead; he is risen. He’s alive right now, and he’s still speaking to his disciples. The opening chapters of […]
Who Moved the Stone?
Read: John 20:1-10 Who will roll away the stone for us? (v. 3) More than eighty years ago an English skeptic named Frank Morison set out to explain Jesus’s resurrection in non-supernatural terms. His study led him to call that project “the book that refused to be written.” The book Morison did actually write, which […]
On the Third Day
Read: Matthew 28:1-10 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. (Matt. 28:6) What a story! Several of the women who were closest to Jesus went out to the garden tomb early Sunday morning to finish the job they had not had time to complete on Friday afternoon. As they reached the […]
Dead and Buried
Read: John 19:31-42 Since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. (v. 42) On Saturday, Jesus was dead. Christians call this day, the day when life itself stopped and Jesus’s body lay in the tomb, Holy Saturday. After Jesus died, he was buried. It’s a simple statement that we repeat, perhaps unthinkingly, […]