When You're Facing Jesus

Revelation 5:1, 6; Revelation 20:10-11

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals.

The vision starts with seeing God on his throne. At the beginning, we see the following scene in Heaven. Revelation starts off with the judgements of God against the earth. God is seen walking through the churches in their places according to Revelation 1:12-13. From this position, he made intercession for the believers as their great high Priest of Romans 8:34. He is currently seated at the right hand of the Father until he makes his enemies his footstool in Psalm 110:1. Christ's position and occupation makes him no less God than a man standing in a garage makes him a car. The presence of Satan among the churches, who were neither God's nor obedient to him, does not make him any less God.

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

This verse shows the Son of God standing before elders of Heaven and the living creatures looking like the Lamb that had been slain. He took the scroll from him who sits on the throne; over in Revelation 20:11, he himself sits down on the throne having completed his judgements. The Lamb is as a spirit animal of God so to speak. We see the seven eyes and the seven spirits of God sent to the churches at the beginning of the book contained within him. Most Caucasian brethren will not be able to understand this; the spirit, the person, and the creature as the whole are more divided in African culture. Again, this is not about black magic, but about the purity of God.

The kingdom of heaven is like the coin the woman lost; she searched the whole house until she found it in Luke 15:8-10. When was the last time you heard teaching like this about the power, authority, and responsibility of the believer preached in your local church? This power, authority, and position is like the lost coin that must be found. How did this happen? The woman was baking bread and mixed leaven with the dough which soon caused the whole lump to be leavened as in Matthew 13:31-33. The error crept in through the teachers and that is how it spread over the centuries as what should have been known was lost. Then again, the owner of the household in Luke 13:18-19 opened the door and threw a seed into his garden. This seed grew into a great tree as the birds of the air came and lodged in the branches. It is the seed of faith that grew the church. It began growing with the fall in the Garden of Eden and bore Christ on the resurrection tree and from there the church. How did the church miss this tree? Between the birds and the branches, it is easy to forget the root who bore you was Christ in John 15:5. In such a perspective, the connective larger branches get praised for their nourishment, but they are not the source. The lump sum of the parables form the kingdom theology; if it is not viewed as a whole tree can get easily confused with dead wood or even kindling.

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Jump ahead to Revelation 20:10-11 where the angel with the power over death and hell chained Satan in the pit for one thousand years. Overlook the fact he may have appointed the dead to be raised while he was at it in Revelation 20:2. There is a time "appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgement" according to Hebrews 9:27. When he calls you, it is your time. When the appointments came due, the people were raised to eternal life; here we see the Judge over all the earth seated on his throne. Great stubbornness can increase the responsibility when it comes. He appointed these like the laborers, gotten late in the day to work in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16; these will be his priests and will reign with him for a thousand years in Revelation 5:10. Yet, we like the first laborers who were hired got an attitude. Did God not say, in Revelation 1:6, he made us to be a nation of kings and priests unto himself. We have had the power and appointment all along. How you use this responsibility is like the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Here, the master gave the power and appointment and went away only to give more to the faithful when he came back.

A similar story is told of the master who gave each servant cities to rule in only to give more when he got back to those who did as he asked. Notice that Jesus told us about the kingdom in bits and pieces. This was done so we without the latter saints to come would not be made perfect according to Hebrews 11:40. This is why we cannot understand it all until the end of the book. There is order in the kingdom, amen. How would you feel if you had to cook dinner for those in the family who decided to come to dinner; then you had to turn around and cook it again for the ones who got there after everyone else ate. There is also fairness in the kingdom. What of the believers who like the servants of the master dug a hole and buried the talent or did not rule over their appointed assignment? The devil is ruling and investing in your place, believe me, if you do not. If you do not wish to fulfill your kingdom assignment, let me assure you, God is more than capable of having you reassigned or even replaced. Here in this parable we see the principle of strongholds. For these demonic strongholds to be thrown down, the strong man must first be bound and his house spoiled according to Matthew12:29.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

See him before whose face all that was created fled away. Creation recognized its Maker. The creation which had been tainted by the fall and stained with his judgement fled from him; see, he had suffered injustice at the creation's hands. We see collective guilt, collective responsibility, and the authority of God. He just looked at it without saying a word. Remember the woman caught in adultery whose accusers fled from her; like the creation, they never said a word in the face of God as in John 8:9. So, the earth ceases its' crying out for justice and flees from the one who made it. Not one word about global warming, pollution, or the crimes of humanity was said. Those of you who are politically in tune know the earth and creation has a lot to say; the earth has been talking about the misuse of humanity and how it is wearing out. Yet, God is there for one reason to judge humanity rather than the stewardship of this world. The second part to be aware of is that there is order to the resurrection of the people. Those who were martyred under the altar of God came to life. First, they reigned with him after their great suffering during this time which came with great responsibility. After those, the rest of the dead were raised to determine if they are in Christ or not in Revelation 20:15. As touching as the plight of the planet is, first make sure your eternity in Jesus is secure.

Here we see the believers who rested in the Lord until it was their time to reign over the new world with him. All that was said to draw a background around the Lamb seated on the throne. Let me give a brief illustration. A man was sitting on my porch when I came home last night who looked like my abusive ex; I was just about to smite him in the Spirit of God when my front door opened. My husband came out to kick his friend off my porch. Boy was I ever happy. Just like this, after being martyred, accused, and attacked spiritually and physically the believers also felt when they saw Christ. They saw him who took the devil and locked him up for what he did. Here, they come to the great white throne with all the other dead expecting to see their enemy which is their abusive ex so to speak. Then, they hear God telling his Son all about them as he had for years. Satan just is not there anymore where he once was. They came up expecting the gavel to fall and to hear God judge them according to what was done in the books. I would imagine it must feel like seeing my husband come out the door to give me a hug. Imagine being judged not by what the devil did nor what he said, but according to the Lamb's book of life. They overcame "by the blood of the Lamb" and "the word of their testimony" in Revelation 12:11.