Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: Revelation 1
I Have The Keys

I Have The Keys

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I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

Revelation 1:18 

Christ has authority over death and the grave. Our text holds His declaration of this fact. He says, ‘I have the keys of Hades and of Death.’ The holder of the keys to anything is the one who has the authority to use them to open and shut it at will. How is it that Christ has this authority? He has it explicitly because He was dead, is alive from the dead, and is alive forevermore. By His resurrection from the dead Christ has defeated death. Because He has defeated death, He has authority over it and the grave where death holds his prey. Thus when Paul writes of the resurrection, He relates our resurrection to Christ’s. He writes, ‘For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.’ He closes his discussion of the resurrection with the words, ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’  Therefore when we hear Christ’s words in our text we understand how He can have the keys of death and the grave. This takes away all fear of these things for us. If we are Christ’s, we have an indissoluble union with the One Who owns death and the grave. He is the resurrection and the life. We are safe in Him.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You have all authority. 
We praise You that because You do, 
death and the grave hold no fear for us. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Alive Forevermore

Alive Forevermore

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I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

Revelation 1:18 

Having died once, Christ will live forever. This is important for our understanding of our future. Christ draws our attention to this portion of the text by prefacing it with, ‘Behold.’ He wants us to concentrate on this portion, even above all the other facts to which He has already referred. What makes this fact more worthy of our attention? It is important because it is the end for which the other events were the means. It was necessary for Christ to live perfectly. It was also necessary for Him to die sacrificially. Without those two things, there would be no salvation. By His life, He satisfied the law in precept. By His death, He satisfied the law in penalty. That God raised Him from the dead proves He accepted His sacrifice. Because He lives there is no more need for sacrifice. He has by this effectively conquered death. Because He is alive forevermore, all who are in Him shall never die. Physical death, as we refer to it, is the passage from this present stage of life to eternal life. Because Christ is alive forevermore we also shall live.  

Our Glorious Living God, 
we rejoice that You have conquered death. 
We praise You that because You have, 
eternity with You stretches before us.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

He Who Lives

He Who Lives

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I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

Revelation 1:18

Jesus lives. As John begins the revelation of Jesus Christ, he receives from Him clear understanding of Christ’s identity and current status. Our text summarizes both of those things. Christ lays emphasis upon them, most particularly His being alive from the dead. This inevitably leads us  to a discussion of the resurrection of the dead, and of His resurrection. Paul writes at some considerable length about the resurrection. In I Corinthians 15, he ties the fact that there is a resurrection from the dead to Christ’s resurrection when he says, ‘But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.’  He goes farther to tie His resurrection, to the resurrection of all the redeemed by saying, ‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.’ The whole prospect of our eternal future hinges on Christ’s resurrection. In Revelation, Christ speaks directly to John saying, ‘I am He who lives, and was dead,’ thus reconfirming the fact that He has indeed risen from the dead. It is of the utmost importance to us that we serve a living Savior. He is alive, well, and active. We are the eternal beneficiaries of all He is and is doing as the Living One.  

Our Glorious, Living Savior, 
we rejoice that You have risen from the dead. 
We praise You that 
Your resurrection guarantees ours. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
All The Tribes Of The Earth

All The Tribes Of The Earth

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Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.  And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.  Even so, Amen.

Revelation 1:7

The return of Christ is a public and global event.  Our text begins, ‘Behold He is coming with clouds and every eye will see Him.’  The second part of the text refers to Israel.  The third part expands the discussion back to the broader frame of reference.  What is interesting to consider is the reaction of ‘all the tribes.’  They ‘mourn because of Him.’  Why do they mourn?  Zachariah speaks of the people of Israel in the day of the Lord who ‘will look on Me whom they pierced.  Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.’  The grieving there seems to be one of regret.  As a matter of opinion, this may be a mourning which arises out of regret for their having rejected Christ on His first arrival.  Certainly, the rejection of Christ does bring regret.  In rejecting Christ we lose much time and many opportunities.  John expands this discussion of mourning to include, ‘all the tribes of the earth.’  What shall we do today if we want to live without this type of regret?  The answer is to embrace Christ.  If we have thus far in life rejected Him, let us not live another day apart from Him.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

O, God of Grace and Glory,
we rejoice that You address all of our issues.
We praise You, that at the return of Christ,
all shall be revealed, every wrong righted,
and all that which is crooked He will make straight.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
They Who Pierced Him

They Who Pierced Him

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Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.  And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.  Even so, Amen.

Revelation 1:7

The return of Christ has both a wide and a narrow scope.  Our text makes the point that ‘every eye will see Him,’ which indicates that it will not be secret.  John goes on to remark ‘even they who pierced Him.’  This narrows the scope of the return to a specific group to whom the revelation is particularly important.  This brings to focus the continuing role of the people of Israel.  Paul asks, ‘has God cast away His people?  Certainly not!’  Christ’s return affects all people, His redeemed, and His chosen people Israel.  The prophet Zechariah was so specific as to say that, when Christ returns, ‘His feet will, stand on the Mount of Olives.’  The geographical location to which Christ returns is calculated to demonstrate to Israel that their long-awaited Messiah has arrived.  For us, this figures into our understanding of the larger purpose of Christ to gather together the Jews and Gentiles into one sheepfold with One Shepherd.  This shows us that Christ is as good as His word and will finish what He began.  It increases our faith, our confidence in Him, and our understanding of the direction that world events are going.  Christ will do all that He has promised. 

Our Gracious Master and our God,
we rejoice that You have not forsaken Your chosen people.
We praise You that Your return will be Your fulfillment to them
of all that You have promised.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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