“…And when they found not His body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that He was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but Him they saw not. Then He said unto them,
‘O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?’
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself…” Luke 24:23-27 (KJB)
the grave
Let My Prayer Come Before You, O GOD
“O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee:
Let my prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto my cry; for my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom Thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from Thy hand.
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Selah.” Psalm 88:1-7 (KJB)
I Will Accept You
“I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 20:41-44 (KJB)
“I will accept you” says the LORD. He will not accept them because of their holiness, righteousnesses, or their sacrifices. He accepts them because of His good, Holy, and Righteous Name.
Keep in mind, if you will, the one’s to whom God is speaking through the prophet are the people of Israel in captivity in Babylon. They are being promised that they will one day return to their Promised Land. Most of these who are hearing would not. Ezekiel himself would not see his homeland again. The nation would return. They did return.
The Lord GOD says to you today, “I will accept you, but not because of your sacrifices, not because of your holiness, righteousness; but for My own Name’s sake.” His Name is the Name that is above every name (Philippians 2:10-11).
I am not accepted by God because of anything good in me, but because of the gift of Jesus Christ – His death on the cross, His burial, and resurrection. He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:19; 2:9).
The Lord accepts all who will come to Him through Jesus Christ. Call on His Name.
The Testimony of One Who Comes to Jesus
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him,
‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!’
Nathanael saith unto Him, ‘Whence knowest thou me?’ Jesus answered and said unto him,
‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.’
Nathanael answered and saith unto Him, ‘Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.’ Jesus answered and said unto him,
‘Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.’
And He saith unto him,
‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’” John 1:47-51 (KJB)
Many often do not get it. How anyone could see Jesus for who He really is. He is no longer dead on a cross. He is no longer in the grave. He is alive. He is, in fact, more alive than He was when Nathanael said, “You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”
Now, why did Nathanael make such a statement. It was because of what Jesus said. It was not the first statement, “Behold and Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” No! It was not that at all. No mere man could have just seen him under the fig tree. It is most likely that they were some distance away, and Jesus knew the heart of Nathanael. This was a gift given to Nathanael by God.
This was in essence the revelation given by God to Nathanael to know the Son of God, and thus God the Son.
Peter’s confession of Matthew 16, when Jesus asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”, and Jesus’s answer to Peter’s confession “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” is eye opening indeed…
“Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17
The testimony of one who comes to Jesus is that He is the Christ the Son of God sent down from glory, so that the lost might be saved from the bondage of sin. Since He is the Son of God it is also enlightening by the Spirit of God to know and understand that He is God the Son. Nathanael saw that. Peter saw that. Do you see that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God; and God the Living Son? If He is not God the Son, then He is not Christ; neither is He Savior.
The Raised One Speaks
Preached at Shiloah Baptist Church on Nov. 04,2018
The Raised One Speaks
Revelation 1:17-20
INTRODUCTION –
I. THE RAISED ONE IS NO OTHER THAN JESUS CHRIST – THE FIRST AND THE LAST.
II. HE COMING AS A LIVING MAN DIED FOR OUR SINS, WAS DEAD, AND HE ROSE AGAIN.
III. THE OUTLINE OF THE REVELATION IS GIVEN
IV. THE EXPLANATION OF THE PRESENT SITUATION WITH THE CHURCH.
I. THE ONE SPEAKING IS THE ONE WHO CAME AS A MAN, TO LIVE, THEN DIE, AND TO BE RAISED FROM THE DEAD (vv. 17-18).
II. OVERCOMING THE GRAVE HE CONQUERED DEATH AND HELL, THEREFORE HAS THE KEYS OF HELL AND DEATH (v. 18).
A. He is the everlasting One; there was nothing but God, and He made everything.
B. Because of His death on the cross, His burial, and bodily resurrection; He defeated death and the grave (1 Cor. 15:55-56).
C. He who has the keys has the authority to let in, keep outl
III. THE RAISED ONE GIVES US UNDERSTANDING IN HOW TO READ THE REVELATION (v. 19).
A. The things which you have seen – the past (chapter 1).
B. The things which are – the present (chapter 2-3).
C. The things which shall be hereafter (chapters 4-22).
IV. THE SEVEN STARS, AND THE SEVEN CANDLESTICKS [lampstands], ARE THE ONES TO WHOM THE FOLLOWING SEVEN LETTERS ARE WRITTEN (vv. 20).
A. Addressed to the seven stars (messengers) and are the angels (pastors).
B. The seven candlesticks are the seven churches representing the church throughout the Church age; also called the age of grace.
1. Be sure you know the One who was living, who died for your sins, was then alive again.
2. He came out alive to give us evidence, proof of who He is, and forever shall be – open your heart.
3. There is an opening of the heart and the eyes that helps us see Jesus and His purposes for the past, the present, and the future.
4. These letters to the pastors of the seven churches are also relevant and needed for today’s pastor, people, and the Church.
LORD God of My Salvation
“O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee: Let my prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.” Psalm 88:1-3 (KJV)
For the commentary today I will let a scholar from the past speak:
I. A man of prayer, one that gave himself to prayer at all times, but especially now that he was in affliction; for is any afflicted? let him pray. It is his comfort that he had prayed; it is his complaint that, notwithstanding his prayer, he was still in affliction. He was, 1. Very earnest in prayer: “I have cried unto thee (Psa_88:1), and have stretched out my hands unto thee (Psa_88:9), as one that would take hold on thee, and even catch at the mercy, with a holy fear of coming short and missing of it.” 2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer: I have called upon thee daily (Psa_88:9), nay, day and night, Psa_88:1. For thus men ought always to pray, and not to faint; God’s own elect cry day and night to him, not only morning and evening, beginning every day and every night with prayer, but spending the day and night in prayer. This is indeed praying always; and then we shall speed in prayer, when we continue instant in prayer. 3. He directed his prayer to God, and from him expected and desired an answer (Psa_88:2): “Let my prayer come before thee, to be accepted of thee, not before men, to be seen of them, as the Pharisees’ prayers.” He does not desire that men should hear them, but, “Lord, incline thy ear unto my cry, for to that I refer myself; give what answer to it thou pleasest.”
II. He was a man of sorrows, and therefore some make him, in this psalm, a type of Christ, whose complaints on the cross, and sometimes before, were much to the same purport with this psalm. He cries out (Psa_88:3): My soul is full of troubles; so Christ said, Now is my soul troubled; and, in his agony, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, like the psalmist’s here, for he says, My life draws nigh unto the grave. Heman was a very wise man, and a very good man, a man of God, and a singer too, and one may therefore suppose him to have been a man of a cheerful spirit, and yet now a man of sorrowful spirit, troubled in mind, and upon the brink of despair. Inward trouble is the sorest trouble, and that which, sometimes, the best of God’s saints and servants have been severely exercised with. The spirit of man, of the greatest of men, will not always sustain his infirmity, but will droop and sink under it; who then can bear a wounded spirit?
From the Matthew Henry Commentary
May your heart hear God as He speaks with you, and draws you to Himself.
Through the Bible in a Year – 021713
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
The Greatest Act of Service
Mark 12 – 16
1. Loving God and loving your neighbor (12:28-34);
2. Preparing others for what will come (13:5-13);
3. Receives the blessing of others who recognize who He is (14:1-11);
4. Gives the ultimate gift – His life for others (15:15-21);
5. Rises victorious over sin, death, hell, the grave; and justifies all who will believe (16:1-8).
-Tim A. Blankenship