The Reward Part 4

REVELATION Number 59
Ruling Authority

Revelation 2:26–28 tells us that, “The one who overcomes, and the one who keeps My deeds until the end, I WILL GIVE HIM AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE SHATTERED, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. (NASB 2020)

I want us to be sure not to miss this. The Lord Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. There is no greater name than His, yet here He shows His true colors, sharing His authority and His majestic glory with His bride.

The Lord Jesus said in John 16:33 that He has overcome the world. Then in 1 John 4:4 we find this, “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” (NASB 2020) The Lord Jesus is in us by His Spirit and we are in Him as well. Because He has overcome, we have overcome.

The text here refers us back to a number of passages. Regarding authority and ruling, Psalm 2:8–9, which speak of the Lord Jesus are evoked. There we read, “‘Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’” (NASB 2020)

The passage is echoed in Revelation 12:5 where we find, “And she gave birth to a Son, a male, who is going to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her Child was caught up to God and to His throne.” (NASB 2020)

Revelation 20:4, which says, “Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (NASB 2020)

The “vessels of the potter” that are shattered reminds us of Isaiah 30:14 which speaks of those, “Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar, So ruthlessly shattered That a shard will not be found among its pieces To take fire from a hearth Or to scoop water from a cistern.” (NASB 2020) See also, Jeremiah 19:11.

I think this is what the apostle Paul was alluding to in 1 Corinthians 6:2–3 when he said, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you”, and, “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” (NASB 2020)

Likewise, we find that it is the Lord Jesus Himself who is the Morning Star. Our passage says that the Lord will give us Himself, and that is exactly what He did at the cross. As He said in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.” (NASB 2020)

Revelation 22:16 makes it crystal clear that it is He who is the bright morning star, saying, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you of these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” (NASB 2020)

From this blessing we are beginning to get a picture of the end of all saints. A glimpse of Life when the Lord has fully consummated the new creation in a new heaven and a new earth populated by new people, who are His spotless bride, clothed in purest white.

The Kingdom is already established, and His bride is already on the scene. Yet even more lies ahead. What a day of rejoicing that will be!