The Lamb is Lord!

Jesus is the King who reigns over all things, and he does so as the Sacrificial Lamb and the Shepherd of the Nations.

Jesus is the only one who unveils the “mysteries of God,” he alone is qualified to reveal the “unseen God.” Only in him are all the promises of God fulfilled. He is the key that unlocks the Hebrew Bible and explains the “times and seasons.” And only he is our absolute Lord and Sovereign– (Revelation 5:9-14).

Jesus Christ is the only man who has ever lived whom God appointed as Absolute Sovereign over His Creation. All other claimants to supreme power are pretenders and usurpers. But it n0t just any messianic figure whom God made Lord, but the Christ who submitted to a shameful death to redeem his people, something no would-be national leader has done before or since. “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” – (Mark 10:45).

[Corinth - Photo by Alex Presa on Unsplash]

Jesus was installed on the Divine Throne, not because he conquered his enemies through subterfuge and violence, but because he sacrificed his life for friends and foes alike to reconcile them with God. Because he “poured out his soul unto death,” he was raised from the dead, exalted, and received the designation “Lord.”

Presidents, kings, dictators, and emperors have grasped at divine lordship since the dawn of civilization, and so it remains today. However, blasphemous men who presume to appropriate for themselves the honors that belong to Jesus alone will be destroyed by the “manifestation of his arrival,” especially the final “Son of Destruction.”

The true Messiah will subjugate all his enemies by the time he returns, and only God’s kingdom will endure. The rulers of this world will learn that God installs and removes kings as He sees fit - (Daniel 2:21, Romans 13:1-6).

Before Christ’s “arrival” or ‘Parousia’, the final deceiver, the “Man of Lawlessness,” will appear, which will coincide with the apostasy of many believers. This “false anointed one” will do his deceitful work inside the Church until the moment Jesus returns and destroys him as promised in Scripture- (1 Timothy 4:1):

• “For there will arise false anointed ones and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold! I have told you beforehand” – (Matthew 24:24).

• “Let no man seduce you in any way, for it will not be except the apostasy comes first, and the Man of Lawlessness is revealed, the Son of Destruction, he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sits in the Sanctuary of God, presenting himself as God <…> Then will be revealed the Lawless One, whom the Lord Jesus will slay, with the breath of his mouth, and paralyze with the manifestation of his arrival, even he, whose coming is energized by Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for those who are perishing because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” – (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10).

• “He will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked” - (Isaiah 11:4).

Jesus is the center of Apostolic Faith, the only true Messiah. There will never be another. Because he obeyed his Father by submitting to death on the Cross, God resurrected him and made him Lord and King forevermore:

• “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Therefore also God highly exalted him, and gave him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” - (Philippians 2:8-11).

LAMB AND SHEPHERD

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is the sacrificial “Lamb” who is declared “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll.” He is worthy to receive all authority because “by his death, he purchased men from every nation for God.” Since his exaltation, it is the Lamb who rules, including in New Jerusalem – (Revelation 22:1).

The Book of Revelation is the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” It is an unveiling of the Messiah. It is the sacrificial Lamb who is Sovereign over all things and the “Ruler of the Kings of the Earth.”

God’s Messiah reigns in unexpected ways. Not only is he the Lamb, but he is also the “Shepherd {‘poimainô’} of the Nations.” He rules by leading the nations to everlasting life in the Holy City, not by annihilating them:

• “These are they who are coming out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his Sanctuary. And he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will hunger no more, neither thirst any longer, neither will the sun strike upon them, nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd {‘poimainô’}, and he will guide them to fountains of waters of life” – (Revelation 7:13-17).

• “And she was delivered of a son, a male, who is to shepherd all the nations {‘poimainô’}” – (Revelation 12:5).

• “And the nations will walk amidst the light thereof, and the Kings of the Earth bring their glory into the city” – (Revelation 21:24).

The “Slain Lamb” is the “Living one” who reigns from God’s Throne. “And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore and hold the Keys of Death and Hades.” He “opens and no man shuts,” and his authority extends even over the realm of the Dead, reassuring us that not even death can remove us from his tender care – (Revelation 1:1, 1:18, 3:7).

None of the events portrayed in the visions of the Book of Revelation occur without Christ’s knowledge. Even the “Beast from the Sea” is unable to launch its war against the “saints” until the time determined by the Lamb - (Revelation 1:1, 1:17-20, 13:7-10 – “It was given to him…”).

Jesus Christ is the “Faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the Dead, and the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth.” Because of his Death and Resurrection, he is now sovereign over the Cosmos, the Lord and the “King of Kings,” and all because of his Death and Resurrection.

• “Let all the house of Israel therefore know with certainty, that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified!” – (Acts 2:36).

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SEE ALSO:

• The Victorious Shepherd - (The kings and nations of the Earth are found in New Jerusalem because of the Lamb’s redemptive work)

• The Son of Destruction - (Many saints will apostatize when the Lawless One, the Son of Destruction, seats himself in the Sanctuary of God)

• The Apostasy - (Paul warned the Thessalonians of a future apostasy and linked it to the unveiling of the Man of Lawlessness, the Son of Destruction)

• Two Pivotal Events - (Two events must occur before the Day of the Lord begins - The Apostasy and the unveiling of the Man of Lawlessness)