Dear friends,
As today is the last day of the month, it reminded me of what the apostle John recorded in the first chapter of the last book of the Bible concerning the Lord Jesus Christ: that He is “the first and the last” (please see “Scripture for the weekend” below). Earlier in this chapter, there is a quote from the Lord God: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
An evangelist friend, Tony Schaapman, told me many years ago that Revelation 1:17, in which the Lord Jesus describes Himself as “the first and the last,” can be used to explain the divinity of the Lord Jesus to people who describe themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since the Lord God describes Himself using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet in the eighth verse of the same chapter, we have a direct link between God and Jesus. In the second chapter of the book of Revelation, further evidence of the divinity of Jesus is revealed in His description of Himself to the church in Smyrna as: “the first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life” (2:8).
The country of Turkey has been in the news recently for several reasons, including a terrorist attack on the airport in Istanbul. The third largest city in Turkey – Izmir – was known as Smyrna when Revelation was written. In his book “God’s Final Word” Ray C. Stedman explains the significance of the name of this city: “The name means “myrrh,” a fragrant spice or perfume obtained when the tender bark of the flowering myrrh tree is pierced or crushed. It is a fitting name for the first-century church of Smyrna, which gave off the fragrance of Christ throughout the region because it was a church that was often pierced, often crushed, often afflicted.”
While I was typing the last paragraph, the phone rang. A friend asked me my opinion about the trade that the Montreal Canadiens made yesterday. While a wide array of comments have been expressed in the past 24 hours concerning the exchange of star players, one thing is certain: these athletes earn more in one year than most people earn in a lifetime. Living in North America, we are all richer than most of the people in the world. In his study of the church in Smyrna, Stedman writes: “Someone once captured what it means to be poor yet rich in the lines of a poem:
I counted dollars while God counted crosses.
I counted gain while He counted losses.
I counted my worth by the things gained in store,
But He sized me up by the scars that I bore.
I coveted honors and sought for degrees.
He wept as He counted the hours on my knees.
I never knew till one day by a grave,
How vain are the things that we spend life to save.
I did not yet know, till a Friend from above
Scripture for the weekend: “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.’” Revelation 1:17-18 (NASB)
Thought for the weekend: “Morality, like art, consists of drawing a straight line.” – G. K. Chesterton (quoted by David Roper in his book “Seeing God”)
By His grace,
Steve