Bible Gem 2366 – One Last Likely Yohannic Perspective on Revelation 19:10

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. [LITV]

Revelation 19:10

In the previous Gem I did promise you “there’s another angle to this statement which we will explore in the last Gem in this series which can answer even those times when God doesn’t respond as we would like Him to.” It’s a typically Yohannic perspective from John’s point of view. I am convinced John would have had this thought in mind when he wrote “. . . for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

I have drawn your attention to the fact that John was the only disciple who survived to old age without losing his head or his life. All of the other disciples were martyred for their faith. John could well have written:

• “. . . for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophets.”
• “. . . for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophetic.”

I am sure I don’t need to remind you of the verses which clearly state that just as Jesus suffered to the point of death, so too those who dare to follow in His footsteps. In John’s day it was a foregone conclusion that if you chose to follow Jesus the Messiah you were likely to face persecution and death, the death of a martyr. Read again the Gem series Facing Death Not Afraid to Die. This likely outcome had to have been in John’s mind as he wrote down the record of what he saw and heard directly from heaven.

Being a prophet was almost synonymous with suffering for the message you dared to bring from God as the following verses bear witness:

“But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.” Jesus

Matthew 23:31

“Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city. As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time—from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar.” Jesus

Matthew 23:34-35

“What sorrow awaits you! For you build monuments for the prophets your own ancestors killed long ago. But in fact, you stand as witnesses who agree with what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments!” Jesus

Luke 11:47-48

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” Jesus

Luke 13:34

“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. Stephen

Acts 7:51-52

To which John himself adds:

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.

John 15:18-21

“But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.

 “I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. This is because they have never known the Father or me.

John 15:26-16:

It is clear is it not, being numbered among the prophets means you are likely to lose your life? The lot of a prophet in bringing the LORD’s rebuke faithfully, was likely to stir the ire of the people. Thus prophecy, prophets and the prophetic draw a derisive response from the people. Witness Ezekiel’s plea to the LORD after giving the prophecy the LORD required of him.

Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, they are saying of me, ‘He only talks in riddles!’” Ezekiel 20:49

It was not fun to be a prophet! Believe me, that response of the people to Ezekiel was mild compared to the response to Jeremiah whom they nick-named “Terror on Every Side”.

But when Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the LORD had told him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people at the Temple mobbed him. “Kill him!” they shouted. “What right do you have to prophesy in the LORD’s name that this Temple will be destroyed like Shiloh? What do you mean, saying that Jerusalem will be destroyed and left with no inhabitants?” And all the people threatened him as he stood in front of the Temple.

Jeremiah 26:8-9

Now to make it clear to you, allow me to cherry pick the martyr elements from the ‘Revelation’ God gave to John.

“Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead.”

Revelation 1:5

“I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus.”

Revelation 1:9

“Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”

Revelation 1:17-18

“You have endured and suffered because of my name, yet you have not grown weary.”

Revelation 2:3

“Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To everyone who conquers I will give the privilege of eating from the tree of life that is in God’s paradise.”

Revelation 2:7

“Don’t be afraid of what you are going to suffer. Look! The devil is going to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested. For ten days you will undergo suffering. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the victor’s crown of life. Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will never be hurt by the second death.'”

Revelation 2:10-11

“I know where you live. Satan’s throne is there. Yet you hold on to my name and have not denied your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed in your presence, where Satan lives.”

Revelation 2:13

“Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone. On the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the person who receives it.”

Revelation 2:17

“But as for the rest of you in Thyatira—you who do not hold to this teaching and who have not learned what some people call the deep things of Satan—I won’t burden you with anything else. Just hold on to what you have until I come. To the person who conquers and continues to do what I’ve commanded to the end, I will give authority over the nations.”

Revelation 2:24-26

“Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 2:29

“But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white clothes because they are worthy. The person who conquers in this way will wear white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the Book of Life. I will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and his angels. Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 3:4-6

“You have only a little strength, but you have obeyed my word and have not denied my name.”

Revelation 3:8

“Because you have obeyed my command to endure, I will keep you from the hour of testing that is coming to the whole world to test those living on the earth. I am coming soon! Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your victor’s crown. I will make the one who conquers to become a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and he will never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God (the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God), and my own new name. Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 3:10-13

“To the one who conquers I will give a place to sit with me on my throne, just as I have conquered and have sat down with my Father on his throne. ‘Let everyone listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.'”

Revelation 3:21-22

They sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slaughtered. With your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Revelation 5:9-10

“When the lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given.”

Revelation 6:9

They cried out in a loud voice, “Holy and true Sovereign, how long will it be before you judge and take revenge on those living on the earth who shed our blood?” Each of them was given a white robe. They were told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers was completed, who would be killed as they themselves had been.”

Revelation 6:10-11

They told the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to endure it?”

Revelation 6:16-17

“Don’t harm the land, the sea, or the trees until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.”

Revelation 7:3

After these things I looked, and there was a crowd so large that no one was able to count it! They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing in front of the throne and the lamb and were wearing white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10

“Who are these people wearing white robes,” one of the elders asked me, “and where did they come from?”

I told him, “Sir, you know.” Then he told me, “These are the people who are coming out of the terrible suffering. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. That is why: “They are in front of the throne of God and worship him night and day in his Temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will never be hungry or thirsty again. Neither the sun nor its heat will ever beat down on them, because the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs filled with the water of life, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 7:13-17

They were told not to harm the grass on the earth, any green plant, or any tree. They could harm only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

Revelation 9:4

In those days people will seek death, but never find it. They will long to die, but death will escape them.

Revelation 9:6

Then I was given a stick like a measuring rod. I was told, “Stand up and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count those who worship there.

Revelation 11:1

“I will give my two witnesses who wear sackcloth the authority to prophesy for 1,260 days.

These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth. And if anyone should want to hurt them, fire comes out of their mouths and burns up their enemies. If anyone wants to hurt them, he must be killed in this manner.”

Revelation 11:3-5

But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Those who watched them were terrified. Then the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven calling to them, “Come up here!” So they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

Revelation 11:11-12

“Our brothers conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to their lives even in the face of death.”

Revelation 12:11

The dragon became angry with the woman and went away to do battle against the rest of her children, the ones who keep God’s commandments and hold on to the testimony about Jesus.

Revelation 12:17

All those living on earth will worship it, everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life belonging to the lamb that was slaughtered from the foundation of the world. Let everyone listen: If anyone is to be taken captive, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with a sword, with a sword he will be killed.

Revelation 13:8-10

Then I looked, and there was the lamb, standing on Mount Zion! With him were 144,000 people who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Revelation 14:1

. . . they follow the lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from among humanity as the first fruits for God and the lamb. In their mouth no lie was found. They are blameless.

Revelation 14:4-5

“Whoever worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand will drink the wine of God’s wrath, which has been poured undiluted into the cup of his anger. He will be tortured with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and the lamb. The smoke from their torture goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

Revelation 14:9-11

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to their faithfulness in Jesus: I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: How blessed are the dead, that is, those who die in the Lord from now on!” “Yes,” says the Spirit. “Let them rest from their labours, for their actions follow them.”

Revelation 14:12-13

I saw another sign in heaven. It was both spectacular and amazing. There were seven angels with the seven last plagues, with which God’s wrath is completed. Then I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. Those who had conquered the beast, its image, and the number of its name were standing on the sea of glass holding God’s harps in their hands. They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the lamb: “Your deeds are both spectacular and amazing, Lord God Almighty. Your ways are just and true, King of the nations.”

Revelation 15:1-3

“See, I am coming like a thief. How blessed is the person who remains alert and keeps his clothes on! He won’t have to go naked and let others see his shame.”

Revelation 16:15

They will wage war against the lamb, but the lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those who are called, chosen, and faithful are with him.

Revelation 17:14

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you don’t participate in her sins and also suffer from her diseases.”

Revelation 18:4

Then after 3 woes and 3 hallelujahs:

Then the angel told me, Write this: “How blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb!” He also told me, “These are the true words of God.” I bowed down at his feet to worship him, but he told me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who rely on what Jesus is saying. Worship God, because what Jesus is saying is the spirit of prophecy!”

Revelation 19:9-10

There you have it in a nutshell. I am sure you see from the above verses how consistently and comprehensively John reinforces the same theme. The sheer volume of comment on this theme is overwhelming. Every one of the seven churches were given the same message. Seven churches are symbolic of all churches, all believers.

In his concluding statement here in chapter 19, the previous vision is emphasised by a benediction, which John was instructed to write! The invitation to ‘the Marriage Supper of the Lamb’ takes us back to the beginning of the book or the letter. What John has written down needs to be taken seriously as the Word of God! Hold to your testimony, it is a true statement from the Most Faithful of Witnesses ever. That is an amazing conclusion, signed off with this enigmatic statement.

Surely it means all of what I have spelt out for you in the these last three Gems: Jesus’ testimony is what prefaces and undergirds ours. Our testimony is powerful because He lived, died and rose again, which means we will too. You don’t have to fear death because He has gone before you. Jesus holds the keys to death and hell. Live in such a way that enables and incorporates His testimony in yours. Furthermore, in order to attain to the Life of the Age to Come; LIFE as God first intended it and to find yourself present at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, hold to your faith in Him to the point of being willing to die. After all, what is death in Jesus’ words but the transition into REAL LIFE as God created it to be.

I can’t wait to talk with John when I meet him to ask him first-hand what he meant by the closing statement of Revelation 19:10. I am convinced that it carries all three meanings I have spelled out for you in the last three Gems. I don’t see how John could possibly have omitted this last significance of the deaths of the prophets and the followers of Jesus in the context of all he has recorded for us in Revelation. Just read back through this current Gem series again to refresh your mind. In my mind is highly likely that all three “meanings” are a combination of John’s intended challenge to us.

John must have meant us to couple the testimony of Jesus with ours in order to give clout to our testimony. He told us we would do greater things than Him, if like Him we do faithfully that which God tells us.

Ian

John must also have meant us to learn to practise the prophetic by speaking out only that which He first speaks into our listening ears.

Ian

I can’t believe that John would leave out the challenge for us to be willing to die for our belief in Him and all He said, in order to follow the prophets of old into martyrdom.

Ian

All three of these elements fit well with John’s overall thrust in both his Gospel and Revelation.

Ian

Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to their faithfulness in Jesus: I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: How blessed are the dead, that is, those who die in the Lord from now on!” Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”

Revelation 14:12-13