Let us turn again to God's Word
and taking for our text that opening verse that we read in the book of the Revelation
chapter 1 and verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his
angel unto his servant John. And the subject matter then is
simply those opening words, the revelation of Jesus Christ. This morning we were looking
at Christ's prophetic office, considering those words, that
God spoke to Moses back in Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 18 I will
raise him up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee
and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto
them all that I shall command him and amongst other things
we spoke of the nature of the prophetic ministry as said in
a certain sense we can say it is both passive and active and
how the passive is that that governs the active it is God
who must put his words into the prophet's mouth I will put my
words in his mouth and it's only as God does that that the prophet
can be truly active He shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. And that word that we were considering
this morning, remember, is speaking of the Lord Jesus. He is that great prophet that
is being spoken of. Like unto Moses, yet greater
than Moses, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee, says Moses, of thy brethren like unto
me, unto him ye shall hearken." And that one, as I said, is none
other than the Lord Jesus. We know that from what we're
told in the New Testament, the testimony of Peter and John there
in the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And look at
what he said at verse 20 following. O God is to send Jesus Christ,
they say, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must
receive unto the times of restitution of all things which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world
began. For Moses truly said unto the
fathers of prophets, Shall the Lord your God rise up unto you
of your brethren like unto me? Him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever ye shall say unto you. And Christ, as that prophet
exercises his ministry as Moses indicates, he is passive, he
receives the Word of God and he is active, he speaks the Word
of God. In his prophetic office he is
the servant of God. Though, of course, when we think
of Him in the Godhead, He is equal to the Father, but He willingly
becomes God's servant, and comes only to speak those words that
He has received from the Father. And here we have it again, in
the words that we read for our text tonight. It's the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him. He was passive. God
gave it to him. To what end? To show unto his
servants things which must shortly come to pass. There he is active. There he is active. It is the
revelation that he has received that he also makes known. And as we know, real Christianity is very much
a revealed religion. It's a revealed religion. There
is a vast difference between natural religion, that religion
that men give themselves and work up in their own souls, as
it were, and true spiritual religion. What is the Bible? It is a revelation. A revelation from God, and it
is a revelation of God. We recognize that. But we want
more than a doctrinal understanding of the Word of Holy Scripture. We want more than right views
in our minds concerning the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. We want to know Him. We want
to know Him in our soul's experiences. That's what we should desire.
It is, says the Lord Jesus, life eternal. to know thee the only
true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." But what is
that knowledge? Oh, it is that that must be revealed,
and it must be revealed in the souls of men. That was the experience
of the apostles. And that was the experience of
Peter and Caesarea Philippi, when he was able to make that
great confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. and what does the Lord say to
him flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my
father which is in heaven it was a revelation it came from
God and it was the same with Paul as he says to those Galatians
when he pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me and he goes on
I consulted not with flesh and blood it was nothing to do with
flesh and blood, nothing to do with men, it was God in His goodness,
in His mercy coming and granting that inward revelation of the
Lord Jesus. Oh how vital it is that we know
that gracious ministry. And here is John on the Isles
of Padmas and what do we read? He's there persecuted I, John, who am also
your brother and companion in tribulation and in the patience
and kingdom of Jesus Christ, he says at verse 9. Oh, he's
there, you see, persecuted, in tribulation, having to endure
sufferings. And he says at verse 10, I was
in the Spirit. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day. and heard behind me a great voice
as of a trumpet. And then he turns to see the
voice, and being turned he sees seven golden candlesticks, and
then in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the
Son of Man, in the Spirit, on the Lord's day. And he beholds
something of the glories of the Lord Jesus. It's a revelation.
It's the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him
to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass
and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant
John. Well as we come to consider these
words for our text tonight I want to divide what I say into these
two parts. First of all to consider the subjects the subject matter
of the revelation. And then, how this revelation
is shown, how it is revealed. First of all then, to think about
the subject matter that is being revealed. And what we have here,
of course, at the beginning of the verse is a genitive, and
that indicates possession. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ in the sense that it belongs unto the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
His. It's His. And how is it that
it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ? Because it was something
that was committed to Him. It was something that God had
given to Him. the revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him. All these are significant words
as we ponder them. Here we see the Lord Jesus Christ
receiving a revelation and in that he receives this revelation
from the Father we say that he is that one who is truly subject
to the Father. And that of course is a truth
when we think in terms of the Covenant. In that Covenant of
Redemption it is the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the Eternal Son
of God who willingly agrees to serve the will of the Father.
He becomes the Father's servant. Behold My servant, whom I uphold,
Mine elect, God says, in whom My soul delighteth. I have put
My Spirit upon Him. He is the Anointed One. And He is that One who comes
to serve God. Now when we think of the Lord
Jesus as the Eternal Son of God, We see how he clearly is one
who is equal to the Father. This is the doctrine of God,
the doctrine of the Godhead, three persons. Father, Son and
Holy Spirit in one Godhead. And the persons are God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. the Father begetting the Son,
the Son begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeding from
the Father and from the Son. There's a relationship between
those divine persons. Now, interestingly, when we come
to consider man, made in God's image, created after God's likeness,
remember how God makes the man of the dust of the earth breathe
into his nostrils a breath of life, he becomes a living soul.
God takes one of Adam's ribs and forms and fashions to help
meet for him. Gives him as his bride, as his
wife, Eve. And they are then to procreate. They are to be fruitful. And
what do we see in creation? Well, the offspring. The offspring
of Adam and Eve is of the same nature as the parents. Genesis chapter 5 and verse 3
we're told Adam begat a son in his likeness after his image. How striking is that? Adam is
created but the son that is procreated is in the same image after the
same likeness. Now I simply refer to that as
a sort of illustration. In many ways it's inadequate.
But here is the truth, you see. The Lord Jesus Christ is begotten
of God the Father. He is of the same nature as God
the Father. Begotten, not made. Being of
one substance with the Father. That's the language of the ancient
creeds. He is very God. of very gods,
begotten, not made. And though we see it in scripture,
when we see Him there as the wisdom of God, we've referred
many a time to the language that we have in Proverbs chapter 8,
how He speaks, when there were no depths, He says. He's speaking
before ever there was any creation, when there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were formed, before
the hills was I brought forth, eternally brought forth, eternally
begotten. Then I was by Him, He says, as
one brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him. Oh, when we think of the Lord
Jesus and we're to recognize He is His deity, He is God, He
is God, the eternal Son of God. He can say in the course of His
ministry, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. In His
very essence He is one with the Father. And the Jews understood
that. When He spoke of Himself as the
Son of God, they knew what it meant. Oh, they sought the more
to kill Him. They said he'd not only broken
the Sabbath as they understood the Sabbath and they had no proper
understanding of the Sabbath, but he'd not only done that,
he had said that God was his father, making himself equal
with God. And that was the charge that
they laid against him before Pontius Pilate. They said he
was guilty of blasphemy because he made himself the son of God. Well, we're to recognize that
and I cannot emphasize that precious truth enough that He is God.
God manifests in the flesh. But here, when we come to the
words of our text tonight, we're to think in terms of the covenants,
the new covenant, of which He is the mediator. in which we
see Him as that One who comes to serve the will of the Father. He is God's servant in the covenant. And so what do we read? It's
the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto Him. He belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ because the Father has, in the covenant, committed it
unto Him, which God gave unto Him, to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John and so what is John told
later verse 19 write the things which thou hast seen and the
things which are and the things which shall be hereafter the
mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand
and the seven golden candlesticks the seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches or the messengers of the seven churches
the seven candlesticks are the seven churches all of these things you see the
Lord Jesus Christ has received and now he is committing these
things unto John remember how at his ascension in the opening
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles when the apostles inquire concerning
the time when God will restore the kingdom to Israel. He says
the times and seasons God has put into his own power. They
are in God's own power. Again in the gospel he says of
that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which
are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. What were you
subject to the Father? he is serving the father but
then having executed all that work that the father has given
to him having lived that life of obedience to God's will and
God's law and honoring and magnifying that law in every one of its
precepts a life that is all together without any sin weeding a glorious
robe of righteousness and then how that holy righteous and just
one honors and magnifies the same Lord in his dying as he
bears all the penalty of that Lord all having done all that the
Father had given him to do how the Father raises him from the
dead and we'll receive him again into the very heavens. And what
does he say at the end of the gospel? All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. All authority belongs unto him. He is that one who is the head
over all things to the church. He is that one who now rules
and reigns in his mediatorial kingdom in heaven. And we see
it there in that fifth chapter. John says, I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within him on
the back side, sealed with seven seals, this scroll that's sealed.
And the angel, the strong angel proclaiming who is worthy to
open the book and to loose the seals thereof, no man. No man
in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth was able to open
the seals, neither to look thereon. It's the book of God's providence. And John weeps. But then one
of the elders says to him, Weep not. Behold, the lion of the
tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. It's the Lord Jesus
opening the book of God's providence. All authority is His. and we should be those, if we
love the Lord Jesus, we observe His providences. Or are we those
of whom the psalmist speaks, who so is wise, and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord. That language at the end of the
107th psalm, that great psalm that speaks so clearly of God's
providences. or for that wisdom to be observant
and that we might understand then more and more the loving
kindness of the Lord. He is that one who unfolds God's
providences. And he is revealing things to
John you see. Or go and look at the language
of the Apostle in that 15th chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians. And there at verse 25. And the following verse is Paul
says concerning Christ. He must reign. He must reign
till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet. But when he saith, All things
I have put unto him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did
put all things unto him. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things unto him, that God may be all
in all. That's the end of all things. The end of the day of grace.
The glory that is to follow. when God is to be all in all,
then the great mystery of providence and grace shall be closed forever. It is
a mystery that God should create a world and create a world that
was so perfect, very good it seems, and yet God in the mystery
of his sovereignty permits the fall of man. Why? Well, if there were no four,
there'd be no redemption, no salvation, no gospel, no day
of grace, and it's all ultimately for the glory of God. This is
the revelation, you see, that God has committed unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, and John is unfolding it. Oh, observe how it's not
only that that God has committed to the Lord Jesus, But we can
also say there's a sense in which he himself is the subject matter
of the revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him. He is the one who reveals God.
He is the image of the invisible God. It doesn't just belong to
him, this revelation. He is the very sum and substance
of it, it all centers in Him. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed Him. Oh, He is that One who comes
to reveal God. All that we have in the Old Testament,
all that ministry of Moses, and the prophets that followed Him,
All is building up to the coming of the Lord Jesus in the fullness
of the time. Remember the opening verses of
the epistle to the Hebrews. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. whom He hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also He made the worlds, who, being the brightness
of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high." Or God had spoken. There in the Old Testament There
is a revelation of God but now that revelation comes to its
climax, its completion in the Lord Jesus because in these last
days God has spoken unto us by His Son, the brightness of His
glory and the express image of His person. Well, Friends, we
should desire that God would grant to us, in our own souls,
such a revealing of Jesus Christ, or to know something of that
gracious enshining of the Gospel, when He comes into our hearts. Remember the language again of
the Apostle Paul, There in 2 Corinthians 4 he says, God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. Oh, he's speaking of what God
did in the great work of creation. When in the beginning God said,
let there be light and there was light. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, he says, has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. in the face
of Jesus Christ. What do we know of that? That
blessed in shining of the Gospel into the dark recesses of our
souls. A very solemn thing, is it not?
When God, as it were, opens up what we are in our very nature,
when God shows us something of our sinful selves, And that work
of conviction is wrought by the Spirit of God. And we see how
great and how deep our fall is. We don't have to indulge in the
most gross sins. When God deals with us we know
that every sin that has ever been committed lies in the very
recesses of our sinful hearts. A heart that is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. that heart where the strong man
armed reigns. Oh, but there is one stronger,
one mightier than the strong man armed. There is the Lord
Jesus Christ, that one who is the blessed conqueror. We sang
this morning in our worship that lovely hymn
of Isaac Watts, remember, on the offices of the Lord Jesus.
We sang the first six verses as our opening praise, and then
we sang the last six verses as our closing praise. And don't we need that the Lord
should come as that One who is the Conqueror and the King. Verse
10, My Dear Almighty Lord, My Conqueror, and my King, thy scepter
and thy sword, thy reign in grace I sing, thine is the power. Behold, I sit in willing bonds
beneath thy feet." Now we need the Lord to come and to subdue
all iniquity and deliver us from all our cursed unbelief, to grant
that faith that is of His own operation, faith of the operation
of God. a real faith, a saving faith.
Something we can never give ourselves. All men vainly imagine that they
can of themselves believe, it's so easy. John Newton thought he was very
different, when he says, Oh could I but believe? Oh could I but
believe? Then all would easily be, I would
but cannot, Lord relieve, my help must come from Thee. to know that we stand in need
of such a revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
the enshining of the Gospel. God, who in His sovereignty in
creation, simply commands let there be light, or when God comes
in grace and commands in our souls, that blessed enshining. The shine in our hearts, says
the Apostle, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But let us, having said something
with regards to the subject matter of the Revelation, how it is
Jesus Christ, it's what's committed unto him, it very much concerns
him, he's at the center of it, but let us turn secondly to think
about the revealing of it, the showing of the revelation, it's
the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to this
end to show unto his servants to show unto his servants things
which must surely come to pass and he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John you see it's committed unto
the Lord Jesus Christ in order that he might show it As I was
saying this morning, this is the office of the Prophet. He
is passive, he receives something, he receives a message. It's the
Word of God, but then there's the active, he has to declare
the Word, he has to show the Word. And so it was with the
Lord Jesus. But here of course, we're thinking
in particular of this book, this remarkable book of the Revelation. What is it that has been revealed
that is now being shown? It's all that follows. All that
follows right through to the end of Scripture. The whole of
the book of the Revelation. The contents of this book. And, not surprisingly, in the
very first verse, in this text that we have before us tonight,
we have the key. that in great measure will unlock
the book to us. Look at what it says, he sent
and signified it by his angel onto his servant John. It was
sent to John when he was there suffering persecution cut off
from all fellowship with fellow believers on the Isle of Patmos
And the Lord comes, reveals himself to him and gives him this book. He sent, it says, and signified. Now there's a word. It is sent, and it's sent in
a certain manner. It's full of signs. It's full
of symbols. This is the book that we have,
you see. We have to recognize that. Even in the opening chapter,
when John sees the glorified Christ, what does he say concerning
the Lord Jesus? Verse 16, he had in his right
hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword. We're not to think here in terms
of a literal sword coming out of his mouth. but it indicates
something with regards to the nature of the revelation, the
nature of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. As we said this morning,
the true prophet's ministry is a discriminating ministry. The
language of Jeremiah 15, 19. Those things that Jeremiah is to do by the
course of his ministry is to separate. If he separates the
precious from the vile, he will be as God's mouth. And how the
Lord's ministry was such a separating, such a dividing ministry. How
many times do we read it there in John's Gospel, a division
because of him, a division because of his saying. We're not to think
then in terms of a literal sword, but the nature of his ministry.
And again, in that fifth chapter that we read, where he opens
the book with the seven seals, unfolds the providence of God.
How is he described? Verse 6, I beheld. And lo, in
the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes. Are we to think that he has seven
horns and seven eyes? No. The seven horns speak of
his strength. The strength of the animal in
its horn reminds us of his great power. And we're told the seven
eyes are the seven spirits of God. Sent forth into all the
world, why on the day of Pentecost did he not shed abroad the Holy
Ghost? And of course the word seven is a symbolic number. Indicating
to us that he's complete and perfect. God, from the beginning,
when He made all things in six days, rests on the seventh day
and declares all the work to be perfect. All the language
that we have here, friends, is symbolic language. It's symbolic
language, and we're to recognize that fact. It's the revelation
of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to show unto His servants
things which must shortly come to pass. What do we see here
in the Lord Jesus? Oh, He is that one who is the
only true revealer of God. He is the true revealer of God.
He is the last of the prophets. Muhammad is a false prophet.
There is no prophet after the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to remember that.
He is the greatest of all the prophets. No other prophet is
necessary. He has come who is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Or we confess
one God. One God and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And what does the revelation
involve? When this revelation is brought
home into the soul of a man, into the soul of a woman, what
is involved? All the persons of the Godhead
are there. It is a revelation that is from God, from God the
Father, it is by the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, and it's
all in the Lord Jesus, God the Son. from the Father by the Spirit
in the Son. Oh how the Father is that one
who in a sense reveals the Lord Jesus. We've already referred
to the words of Christ to Peter there at Caesarea Philippi in
Matthew 16. Blessed art thou Simon by Jonah,
O Simon the son of Jonah, how blessed! flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee but my Father, my Father which is
in heaven." Or the Lord says, they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and learned unto the Father cometh unto me. Without the Father
no man ever comes to the Son. He will not come unto me. but
it is the promise of the Covenant they're all going to be taught
of God all taught of God and those that have heard the Father
and been taught of the Father they come or they come to the
Lord Jesus Christ they look to Him as that One who is the only
Saviour or they glory in Him for He has come to do all the
will of the Father and He has finished the transgression and
made an end of sin and made reconciliation for iniquity and brought in everlasting
righteousness. Here is the Father's provision
that He reveals to sinners. But then as you know it's not
only the Father who reveals. Doesn't the Spirit come as the
revealer of Christ? Isn't that the peculiar office
of the Holy Spirit when we see the outworking of the Covenant?
In the Covenant the Father sends the Son. And the Son willingly
comes and accomplishes all the will of the Father. And then
as the Lord Jesus says in those chapters in John 14, 15, 16 He must go away from His disciples
in order that the Spirit might come. If He goes away, He will
send the Spirit onto them. And what will He do when He comes? He will come really as the Spirit
of Christ. Although He be equal to Christ,
equal to the Son, yet He comes as that One who will serve the
Son, His ministry. is a remarkable self-effacing
ministry. He doesn't draw any attention
to himself though he be gods. Howbeit when he the Spirit of
Truth is come Christ says he will guide you into all truth
for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear
that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. He shall
glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto
you all things that the Father hath are mine therefore said
I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you and
so on the day of Pentecost the Lord Jesus is that one who sheds
abroad the Holy Ghost There's only the other day that
this weekend is what they used to call Witson, Witsontide. I suppose the reason for that
is it's some seven weeks after Easter or after Passover, which marks of course the coming
of the Spirit Pentecost. Who was it who shed abroad the
Holy Ghost? It was the Lord Jesus. And how Peter makes that so plain
in the course of his preaching. Being by the right hand of God
exalted, he says to those Jews, he hath shed forth it which ye
now see and hear. All the Spirit comes to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ. His self-effacing ministry. He reveals the Savior to sinners. The Father reveals Him. The Spirit
reveals Him. And then there is that sense
in which the Son makes Himself known. He makes Himself known. He that has my commandments,
He says, and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me. And he
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him. Or is that what we desire
as we sang in our opening praise that the Lord Jesus would come
and reveal himself? Do we make that our prayer, Lord
Jesus, reveal thyself to me? Or we recognize that that we
said at the outset that true Christianity is a revelation.
It is the revealing of Jesus Christ. And that is true with
regards to individuals. We must have that then. We must
have that. Christ revealed in us as the
hope of glory. If we have not that, our profession
of faith is a sham. There's nothing real in it. All
we need is revelation then. God be pleased to grant that
we might know it and know it increasingly. that we might be
those who desire to see more and more of the glory that belong
unto Jesus Christ, the wonder of His person, the God-man, the
wonder of His birth, the incarnation, the wonder of His life, the miracles
that He performed. We've been reading this last
week in Mark's Gospel how remarkable it is when you read through that
Gospel. All that the Lord is doing, it's all action, healing
men, ministering to men. The wonder of his ministry, the
wonder of his death and his resurrection. Oh, how we need that these things
should be brought home and made so real in our souls. The revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the
word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things
that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and
they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written therein. For the time is at hand. Amen.