I Fell At His Feet as Dead

Lord, I give this time to You and ask that You bless these moments I'm about to spend taking in Your Word and Your truth.


"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 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 1:17-18)


When John saw Jesus in all of His magnificence, splendor and severity, he did what most of us would do ... he fainted. He was so overwhelmed by the awesomeness of our glorified, risen ascended Lord that he just collapsed. But here we see a beautiful demonstration of how Jesus is the reassuring Christ with undeniable deity.


Jesus reaches down and touches John. And it's as if we can hear Jesus saying with gentleness and authority, "Don't be afraid." This is such a tender picture because - even though His outward appearance has changed from when John knew Him, even though He is now effulgent with majestic glory - His heart is still the same. He lovingly reaches out with words of reassurance. 


Now, if we had just read this first chapter of Revelation showing Jesus Christ in all of His glory, we might tend to want to shrink back from Him, too. We might be afraid to approach Him. But we see that we don't have to be afraid if we know the Lord Jesus as John knew the Lord Jesus. The fact that He judges sin, that He knows all about us, that He is absolutely holy - these things don't cause fear and dread for us. They cause rejoicing because we know that our sin is under the blood! And Jesus has the keys of death and of hell.


The Second Coming of Jesus shouldn't put fear into our hearts as Christians. It should give us comfort and hope. We're the ones who don't have to go around with headline hysteria. Remember, there are three kinds of people in this world: those who are afraid, those who don't know enough to be afraid, and those who know the Bible. Jesus says, "Don't be afraid."


~Adrian Rogers~