Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. Tonight, we are going to be continuing our Trinitarian Commentary in the book of Revelation. Before that, I do ask for your prayers. First in my continued Christlikeness, which I believe is having an effect and producing in me a greater confidence. I also ask for prayers for my current financial situation. I finally ask for prayers in a third related area of my life. I trust that God is working in these situations to bring about a greater good. For now, let’s go to the text of Revelation 19:10.
10At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
This is the point in between the appearance of the bride and the appearance of the groom. John bows down to worship the angel and he is told to stop by said angel. What is important for our purposes at first is that the angel resists worship. We can point to numerous times in the gospels and the Acts where people bow down to Jesus and worship him and he does not resist it.
The only one worship is to go to is God. The angel makes that clear, yet Jesus accepted worship. We can especially point to passages where people bow down and then worship him. In Matthew 28, for instance, the text says that his followers fell down and clung to his feet and then worshipped him. It cannot mean just bow down then, for there is no point in saying that they clung to his feet and then bowed down.
What is most interesting is what he says about holding to the testimony of Jesus. What does he mean by this claim? How is it that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy and who really brought prophecy into this book at this point?
We can think back to the two witnesses. They were the ones who testified in Revelation 11. We spoke back then about them holding to the message of Christ. We can also think of Hebrews 11 where we are told that Moses suffered for the cause of Christ.
All prophecy has ultimately been about Christ. He is the centerpiece of it all. The testimony of Jesus means that the testimony pertains to Jesus. In a way, we could also say it is testimony from Jesus. It is the testimony that comes from God about the Son.
Why in this book at this point? This is about redemption and the redemption is found in the Son and that is how one gets the white for the righteous acts of the saints. The way to that redemption is found only in Christ. Only he can give us the righteousness. I also find it interesting that this happens after John sees the beauty of the bride. We, the church, are that beautiful bride and when John sees us, it is then that he is tempted to worship. Let us see this as testimony of how we will be changed.
What does this say about Jesus? All prophecy is about him. He is the one who is to be worshiped. May our testimony today be testimony of the Son as well.
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