December 29, 2025 -- Revelation 3:14 -- Who Jesus Is

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People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.
Revelation 3:14 ESV
 
The context is the revelation that which John, the last living and now old, disciple of Jesus received while he was exiled. Seven churches each had a prophetic word spoken to them. John recorded them. These words were instructive for the various congregations then, and they are preserved because they’re important for us today.
 
Each church has an angel. A guardian sent by God to carry out His purposes of both blessing and judgment. In each of the seven prophetic words spoken to the churches, there is a specific series of titles and names given to Jesus.
 

  • First off, Jesus is the Amen. All the promises of God find their “yes”, their fulfilment in Jesus.

  • Second, the word order in the original language is different. Jesus is the witness, the original word is martyr (from which we derive our word martyr, one who willingly dies for the Christian faith).

  • Jesus is the witness Who is both faithful and true. He is completely reliable. He is completely believable. He is trustworthy.  All this is so because He is True. He is both in Himself the embodiment of truth, and His every word and deed are truth expressed.

  • Jesus is the beginning of God’s creation. Here many folks stumble. They wonder, is Jesus second somehow after God? Did Jesus Himself have a beginning? That is not what is in view here. Beginning also means originator. It means ruler. It carries the sense that without Jesus nothing was made (as is explicit in John 1:3 and Colossians 1:15ff).

 
Knowing these things means when we pray to our Father in heaven, we have the rock-solid assurance He hears us because of Jesus, the Amen. When we read the Gospels, we are confident of the life and work of Jesus and its salvific impact on us. He is faithful. He is true. He is our confidence. He is the fullest, most glorious, most radiant witness to the work of the Father, which began before the foundation of the world, to choose some people in love and reconcile them to Himself through Jesus Christ. He Who is the surety of God’s salvation, is also the ruler, mighty to finish what God decreed for our salvation. Our glorious God directs His angels to guard you and keep watch over you—but that is scant comfort compared to the greater, more wondrous truth that Jesus Himself loves us and His radiance is brighter than a thousand suns. What a guardian of our souls is He!
 
LORD JESUS,
If I love You, my soul shall seek You,
but can I seek You unless my love for You
is kept alive to this end?
Do I love You because You are good,
and You alone can do me good?
It is fitting You should not regard me,
for I am vile and selfish;
yet I seek You,
and when I find You there is no wrath
to devour me,
but only sweet love.
You stand as a rock between the scorching sun
and my soul,
and I live under the cool lee-side as one elect.
When my mind acts without You
it spins nothing but deceit and delusion;
when my affections act without you
nothing is seen but dead works.
O, how I need You to abide in me,
for I have not natural eyes to see You,
but I live by faith in one whose face to me
is brighter than a thousand suns!
When I see that all sin is in me,
all shame belongs to me;
let me know that all good is in You,
all glory is Yours.
Keep me from the error of thinking
You appear gloriously
when some strange light fills my heart
as if that were the glorious activity of grace,
but let me see that the truest revelation of Yourself
is when you eclipse all my personal glory
and all honour, pleasure, and good of this world.
The Son breaks out in glory
when He shows Himself as one
Who outshines all creation,
makes men poor in spirit,
and helps them to find their good in Him.
Grant that I may distrust myself
to see my all in You. Amen.
Puritan Prayer and Devotions, LOVE TO JESUS
 
https://youtu.be/GnagUvvpGjw?si=tC5FLPccpw8RIkd1 Abide with Me
 

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