Heavenly Mindedness (64)

 

“I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof. And that city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads.”  G. Vos [see Revelation chapters 21 & 22]

 

“…and the throne of God and the Lamb are therein: and his servants shall do Him service…” Continuing to ponder the throne of God and the Lamb from the previous post:

 

In pondering the throne in Revelation chapters 4, 5, 21, and 22, among the things we see are: worship, authority, power, glory, Divine decrees, and a recounting of the Gospel in 5:9 – 10. What might you add to this list?

Consider what Jesus says to His People earlier in Revelation:

 

“He who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” (Rev. 2:26 – 28; see also Psalm 2).

 

“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” (Rev. 3:21).

 

There is a sense, a very strong sense, which we’ll more fully explore when we get to, “and they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads,”  in which we are called to experience a portion of our future inheritance in this life, as we seek the Face of God and are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18). There is another strong sense in which we are in a school of discipleship and sonship that is preparing us for the future, and I think of Rev. 2:26 – 27 and 1 Cor. 6:3 especially in this light.

 

What does living before the throne of God and the Lamb look like in our lives today? What are we learning about living before the throne?

 

Certainly our lives ought to be engaged in worship throughout the day and night, and this worship ought to take the form of our words, our deeds, our affections, and our thoughts. All of life ought to be an offering to our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, all of life is to be sacred. This includes our vocations (Colossians 3:22 – 4:6).

 

We ought to be proclaiming the Gospel with both our words and deeds, our words should be validated by our deeds, and our deeds should be validated by our words. We ought not to be so foolish as to think that we can have one without the other – that is simply a lie that we ought not to believe. People need to hear the Gospel (Matthew 28:16 – 20; Romans 10) and they need to see the Gospel (Matthew 5:13 – 16; John 15:8; Philippians 2:14 – 18).

 

Jesus Christ has given His Church authority and power, (Matthew 10:5 – 15; 16:17-19; 18:15 – 20; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:1 – 13). However, I want to say a few things about this idea of authority and power. The first is that we must learn what it is to live in obedience to Jesus Christ if we are going to learn anything about authority and power. We ought not to be so foolish as to think that we can live disobedient or undisciplined lives and be entrusted with authority and power. Yes, it is true that God in His mercy uses us in our uncleanness and foolishness for His glory and the blessing of others, but this does not excuse us – disobedience limits us.

 

We ought to also learn that Divine authority and power is given to the Church to be exercised in the context of the Church, whether we are edifying the Church or in Gospel outreach to the peoples of the world. What this looks like may have myriad forms, but without some fashion of accountability to one another the exercise of power and authority degenerates into a caricature of Christian ministry, all too often leading to the merchandising of the Gospel, taking advantage of those who are not anchored in Christ, the Cross, and His Scriptures. To our shame, we don’t have to look far for examples of this grave error.

 

Also to our shame, the shear numbers of people who follow marquee celebrity teachers who have little or no accountability within the Church, who promise us our best lives now, success, or even the form of sound teaching (having a form of godliness, 2 Tim. 3:5), demonstrates that we tend to live our independent, autonomous, individual lives without regard to living in accountable koinonia in the Church. Thank God that we continue to have faithful pastors and teachers who seek to shepherd congregations in the midst of our celebrity worship. Thank God that, more often than not, these are pastors and teachers of small churches, or churches of modest size, and that faithfulness to Christ and His People is more import to them than numbers and religious success. These men and women are the backbone of faithful Christian expression in society.

 

We have many Nehustans in the church, experiences or teachings that began in the Spirit but which we made into idols (2 Kings 18:4; Numbers 21:8 – 9). This does not mean that we can’t rediscover Divine beauty in what we have twisted, for regarding the preceding passages in Kings and Numbers see how Jesus redeemed our foolishness in John 3:14 – thereby restoring an image that man had desecrated, an image of Christ Jesus Himself. Our participation in Divine power and authority has been made a Nehustan more than once, our twisted merchandising of sacred things has intoxicated high church and low church and “ministries” which practice Wild West autonomy.

 

So let me say this, when we touch Divine power and authority in our service to others, if we do not want to go the way of Balaam (Numbers chapters 22 – 25; Rev. 2:14) or Simon Magus (Acts 8:9 – 24), we ought to fear and tremble and bow our hearts before our Lord Jesus Christ and pray that we will always live as women and men under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as He walked this earth under the authority of the Father (Matthew 8:9; John 5:19).

 

Power and authority tend to lead to one of two things, either self-centered intoxication or humility – we see this in the world and we see this in the professing church. Jacob had to come to the end of his own strength and manipulation before he could truly receive a new name, Israel, a prince who has power with God; coming to the end of ourselves and our endless options and plans, and walking with a limp, is necessary for us to live in the name Israel (Genesis 32:244 – 32) and to learn what it is to exercise the power and authority which the Father has given to Christ, and which Christ has given to us.

 

By the same token, “Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22) and he expected not only that he could deliver Israel from slavery, but that Israel would understand that “God was granting them deliverance through him” (Acts 7:25). O dear friends, how much Moses had to learn! God could not use Moses until Moses came to the end of himself 40 years later, and at the Burning Bush said to God, “What am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex. 3:11).

 

We should be wary of learning the ways of this present age to use in ministry, in outreach, and in the Kingdom of God. We ought not to forget the paradigm that Paul constructs for the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16. The ways of this world and age are not the ways of our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. The seed sown in shallow soil may sprout up quickly, but it will not remain. We must be careful how we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 3:10 – 17. Let us take care not to bring that which is profane into the Temple of God. What the world considers power and authority is being brought to nothing, 1 Cor. 1:26 – 31.

 

Let us recall the Word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).

 

May we learn to live our lives before the throne of the Father and the Lamb.