Amazing Chapters in the Bible for All of the Chapters in Our Lives, Pt 6
Study Guide, August 15, 2021
Pastor Clay Olsen
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It’s interesting that surnames haven’t always been part of people’s names. For example, in Europe, much of the population was broken up into villages, where most people knew each other. But as populations grew, so did the need to separate people who had the same name. Interestingly enough, sometimes they did this by choosing names from their surroundings, like Theodore Underhill or Karen Atwood probably got their names from references to hills or woods near where they lived, as did others like Sally Greenwood or Henry Burrows. Others chose surnames by their occupations; like Andrea Baker was probably a baker in the village. Robert Knight might have chosen his surname to reflect his social standing as a knight, or John Taylor, since he worked with cloth, or Thomas Smith, the local blacksmith.
Some even chose surnames that had religious connections, like Sarah Abbot or James Monk or Joseph Bishop, or they took them from music and the arts, like Jim Harper or Debra Piper.1 It’s really fascinating to look at some of these origins of last names. And if you notice, throughout the Bible you simply see people with just one name…yet often with who their Father and Mother were, like in the genealogies…except when you come to Jesus…then we have ‘Jesus Christ’; for Jesus is His human name, and Christ is His Divine name…His surname that is from the Trinity of the Godhead. And together you have the unique and glorious ‘Incarnation’ of God!
But we bring this up because we saw in that amazing chapter of Revelation 19 that when Jesus Christ returns to establish His Kingdom on Earth, He has several names, and even a new name which no one knows except Himself. Let’s explore. Rev 19:11-13 – “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.” And then verse16 – “And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” NASU
So in this brief passage we have these astounding titles or names given to Jesus: ‘Faithful and True’, ‘The Word of God’, ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’, plus another name that only Jesus knows Himself! What magnificent and profound names of our Lord and Savior! Often when I do visitation, I like to pass along this remarkable pamphlet of 50 Names of Jesus. Each one has the name with its Bible reference and meaning, along with some insights and related titles. For example: ‘Almighty’, from Revelation 1:8, meaning ‘Jesus is all-powerful’. And that means that Christ is the all-powerful Lord. Nothing is beyond His reach or impossible for Him. And some related titles are: Mighty God, Mighty in Battle, Power of God. And it goes on like this with 49 more names. Rose Publishing puts these out, which is now ‘Hendrickson Rose Publishers’, if you want to check them out. The point is, the better we understand the names that God has revealed about Himself throughout the Scriptures, the better we understand the very character and nature of God Himself. And how benevolent and kind of God to do this for us so that we can not only better know our God, but also then better walk with our God and better pray to our God and better trust in our God and better love our God in return for His loving us!
God has gone way beyond what He needed to do, all because He wants our daily fellowship with Him as well as our eternal relationship to Him. God is more personal and relational than we can even think or imagine. Do you think He gave us ‘prayer’ just so we can ask Him for things? Sure, He wants to be our help and our fortress and strength, but mostly He just wants to talk with us and do life together with us. I imagine it’s hard for Jesus not to visibly manifest Himself to show us He really is with us day by day. But it is not time for His visible manifestation just yet. Soon, though!
But with all of this in mind, think about it: “…and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True!” With a name like ‘Faithful and True’, do you think you can trust God with your cares and your concerns and can rely on everything He has revealed to you in His Word? “Faithful and True” pretty much says it all! And catch this: The Apostle Paul tells us that even when we are unfaithful to Him, Jesus remains faithful to us, because He cannot deny ‘Who He is!” 2 Tim 2:13- “If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is.” NLT Sometimes people, even well-intentioned people, have not lived up to their names or their namesake. But Jesus always lives up to every name He has because He is the God of absolute righteousness and holiness and love!
Remember, Jesus also said, John 14:6- “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” NASU Even Jesus’ names reveal that He is the only way for anyone to get to God, and He is the very source of truth in the world, plus He is the very source of life in all the universe! Sometimes we need to stop and think: “Do I realize ‘Who’ it is that has forgiven me of my sins and given me the gift of eternal life?” Our Savior, Jesus, is the very source of all life in the Universe and is Himself the absolute ‘Truth’ about everything! And we have the privilege of being united with Him as God’s children forever!
Then we have: “…and His name is called The Word of God.” That’s the same name that God has given to His Scriptures. God equates His words to us with His very Person. Which means that when we look at the pages of the Bible, we are not only to see God’s instructions to us and God’s counsel unto us and God’s plans for us; we are also to see God with us! We are to see Jesus in His Word. Jesus is ‘Immanuel’, God with us, especially with us in His Word, for He Himself is ‘The Word of God’! So when you look into your Bible, also look for Jesus, for He is ‘The Word of God’. Even this amazing reality is meant to inspire our love for the Scriptures to grow more and more as we walk with Jesus more and more by walking with His Word more and more.
Now…How about when Pilate asked Jesus, “So, you are a king?” Jesus responded with, “You are right in saying I am a king.” Pilate had no idea who he was talking to…He was talking to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Pilate should have been bowing before Jesus and confessing that Jesus is Lord and King. And you know what? One day Pilate will bow before Jesus, along with every person who has ever lived. Phil 2:9-11- “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” NASU God’s children will confess this voluntarily in worship and praise of their Savior. And the unsaved will be compelled to confess this as they are judged by the King of kings and Lord of lords. Wisdom is to confess Jesus as your Savior unto eternal life now, rather than admitting and confessing that when you stand before Him as your Judge to eternal death.
But remember, then there was this: “He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.” Don’t you love a good mystery? I think it was Charles Swindoll that said: “God is too kind to be cruel; too wise to make a mistake, and too deep to fully understand.” That’s good. Plus, it’s like the Apostle Paul’s breakout doxology of Rom 11:33-36- “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” NASU
‘Unfathomable’…that’s like a depth in the ocean that cannot be sounded out, or like the height of the stars that cannot be measured. No doubt, this name for Jesus, ‘which no one knows except Himself’, has such depth and such height of meaning that our mortal minds are not capable of even comprehending it. It’s going to take immortal minds to begin to understand the depth of both the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. Remember, we are going to be learning more and more about our King of kings and Lord of lords forever and ever. We will still be Jesus’ Disciples, His students, forever and ever.
But now, in this passage of this Second Advent of Christ there is another amazing thing stated that is a key to understanding the Millennial Kingdom on the renovated Earth before God finalizes His Eternal Kingdom of the New Heavens and New Earth. Notice: Rev 19:15- “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.” NASU So the Apostle John informs us that there will be a period on Earth where Jesus is reigning as King and will be ruling the nations with a rod of iron. We know that in Jesus First Advent, or First Coming He certainly didn’t rule the nations with a rod of iron, for His mission was a ‘rescue mission’, to rescue and ransom people and nations from their sin. So this period of time in which Jesus rules the nations with a rod of iron is still coming. And we also know that once the Final judgement occurs and the New Jerusalem descends upon the New Earth in the midst of the New Heavens of the Eternal Kingdom, there will be no need for the Lord to rule the nations with a rod of iron. There will be no sin or rebellion in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So, again, when will there ever be a time when Jesus will need to rule the world with a rod of iron? When will there ever be a time when King Jesus needs to impose justice and judgment upon people and nations living upon the Earth? It can only be, and it will be, during the promised Millennial Kingdom; the actual and literal 1,000 years foretold by the Prophets and the Apostle John. This is the period of time when the mortal believers who were upon the Earth when Jesus returns then enter into His Kingdom. And being mortal, they will populate the Earth. And being human, they will have children, who then, just as now…some of their children will embrace their King also as their Savior, yet some will still not repent and will reject and neglect so great salvation. And that’s why we see the Apostle revealing this in Rev 20:7-10- “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” NASU
This ‘war’ is what’s called – ‘The Final Rebellion’. It occurs at the end of the Millennial Kingdom. And it is the last rebellion of the Devil and of unrepentant/unsaved mortal humans before the Eternal Kingdom is established. And note, it is also when Satan is finally judged and confined to Hell, where the Anti-Christ and False Prophet from the Tribulation period are already there. As for the rest of the unsaved humans, all the unsaved who have been temporarily confined in Hades will then be transferred to their permanent destination of Hell, after their sentencing at Great White Throne Judgment. But that’s another study in and of itself.
But just one other remarkable feature of this Millennial Kingdom it this: It is a unique time when great numbers of immortal human beings are interacting and living with mortal human beings who have not yet become immortal; or received their resurrected bodies yet. Remember, God’s people will be assisting King Jesus in ruling these nations, or, as John says, we will be reigning with Christ over the nations of the Millennial Kingdom. No doubt, it will seem rather strange at first, having believers in resurrected immortal bodies living among mortals who have not yet received their resurrected immortal bodies. But recall that Jesus already gave us a preview of what that would be like when He met and lived among people after His resurrection for forty days. Acts 1:3- “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” NASU
Actually, in all of the Christian life, as in a scene in the series of ‘The Chosen’, Jesus tells His disciples: ‘Get used to different!’ That’s good! Get used to different. We are to be thinking like citizens of Heaven even while we are still citizens of Earth. Yes, even now, get used to how God does things, how God does life, how God reveals to us what is true, what is right, what is honorable, what is excellent and worthy of praise, and then dwell on these things and do these things. Remember, it is this present world that is ‘weird’. This world readily accepts and believes the weirdest things about false beliefs and false gods and false futures, yet, they refuse to accept and believe the wondrous things about the real Jesus, who is the real God, and to believe in the real future of Earth and Heaven, which are coming soon. This weird world is filled with ungodliness and selfishness and foolishness and deception from the devil. And yet God’s ‘wonderful’ world is filled with godliness and fellowship and wisdom and glories from our Creator and Lord and Savior. But these wondrous realities will one day be experienced by God’s family, by us, as we live and walk with the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in first His renovated Millennial Kingdom, and then in His resurrected Eternal Kingdom.
Oh yes, get used to different! Get used to reality! Even so, come Lord Jesus!
- Paul Blake, What’s In a Name? Your Link to the Past, Bbc.co.uk/history/familyhistory