Join me, if you would, in the
book of Revelation, chapter one, as we continue our study. And
we've just, the last two lessons, we've just had some introductions
to this, and we have noted that to enjoy and appreciate, and
I did some thinking about this, to enjoy and appreciate any book
of the Bible, we have to have a view about God that is revealed
from scripture and that he is almighty. And when he says he's
almighty, that's exactly what he means. He isn't almost almighty,
or almighty sometimes, but he is the Lord God Almighty all
the time. That's God. We shouldn't, but
we do have to give descriptions of God sometimes, that he is
sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train fills
the temple. And sometimes we have to give descriptions of
grace, it's not works, it's not doing something, it's a gift
of God. And then we find in the scriptures that God too helps
us out by being redundant. Lord, God, Almighty. Three times he says the same
thing in three words. So he reminds us. So we remind
ourselves and we remind others. Well, last week we looked just
a little bit at the word apocalypse and the world's view of apocalypse
and what the Bible has to say about it are two different, diametrically
opposed views. The world has imminent destruction
of the world and great or total devastation, and yet when we
look that word up in the Bible, we find it is just absolutely
opposite of that. It's enlightenment, it's opening
up, it's giving us an understanding of. And given the two, I want
the Bible's view. that's that's the one we can
count on so i just want to look at a couple of verses in review
before we go on to this verse and the first one again is found
the first time this particular word is found in scripture and
that's in the book of Luke chapter three Luke chapter three and
the description here just gives us a real beautiful picture of
how to view that word when we get to revelation chapter one
verse one A light to lighten. Now, if there's anything I want
out of that book, it's to be lightened, enlightened. I want to know about my Savior,
and this book is going to spend its time sharing that information
with me. It is not predicting the future,
though there are some things that are noted for future. It
is not predicting anything. It is declaring and by and large
this book declares that the Lord Jesus Christ is the absolute
successful Lamb of God sitting on the throne and the world will
pay him homage and fulfill the words that the Apostle Paul was
used to write, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. the Lord Jesus, to the glory
of God the Father. Now, if there's a verse that
really sums this book up, every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall confess, and we find that a number of times in this book.
Angels bowing and confessing, and inhabitants of this earth
bowing and confessing, and even the critters paying homage to
God. The Proverbs tell us that even
the lions depend on the Lord for food. So all things are subject
unto him, and this book is a light to lighten us. Notice here in
Luke chapter three, verse 32, this is the first time that this
word apocalypse is used in the Bible, and it shares with us,
did I get that wrong? Two, excuse me, chapter two,
verse 32. chapter 2 verse 32 this word
lighten found in this verse of scripture is the same word in
the original language that we find over in revelation chapter
1 and verse 1 and that word is lighten now that that means to
open up to take pull back the veil. There's so many ways that
we can look at that, but this is a wonderful blessing to God's
people and to whoever God ever opens up their eyes of understanding
and permits them to see the Lord Jesus Christ. To that person,
it is the glorious, most glorious day of all their life. when they
are permitted to see the Lord Jesus Christ, when he enlightens
them, when he, as it says here, a light to lighten the Gentiles. Now, that shares with us some
things about our condition by nature. We're in darkness. And it's a serious darkness.
I like what they said about the darkness and what the Bible says
about the darkness down in Egypt, because that's really the spiritual
darkness that we're in, a darkness you can feel. There is no light
coming through it whatsoever. We are cut off from all life. Not only is there no light coming
to us, but our eyes are blind and couldn't see it if it was.
And then the Lord gives us eyes to see and at the same time gives
us the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to see at the immediate
same time. So it's a light to lighten the
Gentiles. And then in the book of Ephesians
chapter three, we also mentioned this last week, but it's just
a wonderful verse as the Apostle Paul shares with the people,
the church at Ephesus, but also with us, that this is a revelation. It's an opening up and he shares
it about himself. and shares about his ministry
in particular. And he says here in chapter three,
verse one of the book of Ephesians, the scriptures share this, for
this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is
given unto me in you word, how that by revelation, that's that
same word, he made known unto me the mystery. Now that's a
far cry from imminent doom. He made known unto me the mystery. Now if you drop down to verse
six, this is the mystery. That the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ
by the gospel. Now that's the revelation. that was given unto the Apostle
Paul. It was hidden to many. It's revealed to his elect and
shared with them that we are not just going to be Jews or
Gentiles, but there will be a body of people made up of every kindred,
nation, people, and tongue. and those that in it can rejoice
in the grace of Almighty God together, knowing that if it
wasn't for the grace of God, even as the prophet Isaiah said,
if it was not for a very small remnant, we should be. as Sodom
and we should be as Gomorrah. So it is the grace of God that
opens up this very small remnant and to them is given the grace
of God and to them it is known the mysteries of the gospel,
the mysteries that there will be Jews and Gentiles all brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ by the gospel, by the grace of the gospel.
So the apostle Paul shares this with the Ephesians and says,
this is the same word we're going to find over in the book of Revelation
chapter one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, a light to lighten,
a revelation and understanding, taking the cover back, opening
it up, making it so people can see this is what God is going
to do for us in the book of Revelation. Now over there in Revelation
chapter one and verse one, We find that the next three words
share with us the revelation is of what? The rest of the book
is going to be this. This is what the book's about.
It is not mysterious things. It's not things to be afraid
of. The book of Revelation, I read
in fact of my Bible in one of those. That's why I said, let's
refrain from reading that stuff. It's the most difficult book
in all the Bible to understand. And then went on to say, but
it has been a comfort to all Christians in all times. Well. It is difficult when we
miss verse one. If we go to that book with the
idea that this is just going to share with us in time prophecy,
we're going to miss the greatest blessing. In this, as in the
book of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or any of the other
books of the Bible, this is the message of our Savior Jesus Christ
and it is a comfort to God's people and it's a comfort to
us because we are all in perilous times. Every generation has lived
in perilous times. There have been great onslaughts
against the truth. Now, we may not have had people
fighting our borders, but there's always been the onslaught against
the truth of the gospel, and there's always been attempts
to water it down, and to make it less than it is, and to make
God less than he is, and to make man more than he is, There's
always been this onslaught and the scriptures continue to share
with us that Jesus Christ is on his throne and man needs a
serious savior because man is in a serious problem and that's
the fall. Over in the book of Revelation,
chapter 1, verse 1, the three next words share with us what
this whole book is going to be about, what it is a revelation
of. When we read about the Lamb some
30 times, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. When we read
about Him being a slain, And then made alive is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. It is, as it says, the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Now I wanna spend some time tonight
on just those two terms. Jesus Christ, it is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. In John chapter one, now this
has been a blessing to me. You know it because I've read
this almost in every service since Mike read it one morning
and I says, whoa, That's what it says. John chapter one, verse
43. John chapter, sometimes I get
so, I'm so inclined to look at the forest, I miss the trees. Going through there just so often,
so often. Every once in a while, I have
to tell Nancy here, I mentioned to her, she says, when did they
put that verse in there? The ink is dry, I realized, but
when did they, because I passed over. Now this, John chapter
one, verse 43, the scriptures share this. The day following,
and I was true to form. I read this three times in rescue.
It was just such a blessing to me. And I tried to leave that
with them. This is what the Old Testament
is about. Notice with me, the day following
Jesus went forth into Galilee and findeth Philip. Now that's
the heart of the whole matter. Philip would have had no interest
at all if it hadn't been Christ finding him first. Now we say
we found Christ, but we better precede that with he found me
first, because that's the only way we find him. It is summed
up in these words by John, we love him because. He first loved us and everything
that we have and hold on to in Christ can be preceded by that. We have we love his grace because
his grace was given to us and all this is he's always the. first reason, first cause for
all things. We're not the instigator, we're
not the one that brings it up, he's the one that gives it to
us. We love him because he first loved us. Now, notice here, Philip, Jesus would go forth into Galilee
and findeth Philip and saith unto him, follow me. Now it could
have just as easily been said at that point, he must need to
go through just like he did about the woman at the well. He must
go find this man. It was appointed. There was a
time appointed. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter, and Philip findeth Nathanael
and saith unto him. This makes the book of Revelation
such a blessing. The revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, this is what's been going on since the very beginning.
Because Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy could
all be said to be the revelation of Jesus Christ. Because that's
what it says right here. It says, Philip findeth Nathanael and
saith unto him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now, it doesn't stop with Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the book of Ruth,
Job, Psalms, all the Old Testament prophets, all the Psalms, all
is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now we have in the book of revelation
of Jesus Christ, we have a compact statement about the Lord Jesus
Christ that is drawn from many Old Testament passages. It is
the revealing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now it is interesting
when we look at this. Go to another, just back up a
little bit to Luke chapter 24. The Lord said the same thing
about the Old Testament. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Yes, there is the history of the Jews, but the history
of the Jews is mindless and meaningless if it isn't the revelation of
Jesus Christ. There's no reason to have the
Jews if it wasn't for the Lord. Now, here in the book of Luke,
chapter 24, verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself. So the Old Testament is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
and he said that. He expounded into them. What
does that mean? He enlightened them. He opened
up their understanding. He made them to understand it. Now, they did not probably understand
all, but they had a lot greater view of it than they had before.
Now, they were blinded to the Lord Jesus until he allowed them
to see him. And then he expounded unto them.
And then in the latter part of that same chapter, verse 44,
it says, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. So all these things that
were mentioned in the Old Testament needed to be, must be, and were
fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Now, there are a number of other
places in the Bible that talk about this very thing, about
what the apostles preached. They preached Christ. One of
them that comes to my mind that is a serious thing, remember
the account of the rich man and Lazarus? Lazarus was a poor beggar,
but he knew about Christ. And the rich man was a rich man
that could care less. And they both died. And in hell,
the rich man lifted up his eyes. Now he saw Abraham afar off. And now I don't understand this,
but I know what I read. And I'm not gonna make it any
bigger than it is. But I don't want to make it any less. But
that rich man asked Abraham, would you please go back to my
five brothers and tell them about this place? Do you remember what
Abraham said? If they'll not believe Moses
and the prophets, they'll not believe the one rose from the
dead. Now that's serious, because that's
all they had at the time. But it is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. The salvation of Lazarus depended
upon him hearing the gospel out of the Old Testament. And the
salvation of Nathanael and Peter And David and Solomon depended
upon them here in the gospel out of the Old Testament. And
the gospel is there is because that's where Jesus Christ preached
the gospel from. And that's where Peter and Paul
preached the gospel from. So that is the revelation of
Jesus Christ. It is the message of Christ.
But in this book, we're going to have all of it put together
in a few short chapters and telling us about the glory of our Savior
described from the Old Testament. Now, this name Jesus, I like
it because the Bible declares it's a great name. Turn with
me to the book of Matthew, if you would. We're gonna be looking
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus. In the book of Matthew, The stepfather of the Lord Jesus
Christ, recognizing that his engaged wife, his fiance, was
pregnant before they got married. And he, being a just man, decided
to put her away privately and not have her stoned to death.
Now that's what it boils down to. I'll just put her away. We won't
ever talk about this. I'll never bring it up. I'll
go marry someone else. She can go her way. I'll go my
way. Now, the Lord steps in because it's unbeknownst to Joseph that
this woman that he's engaged to is the woman that was described
in Genesis chapter three and verse 15. That this, there would
be a woman that would bear the son of God into this world. Now
turn with me if you would to the book of Matthew chapter one.
Matthew chapter one. It tells us in verse 18, now
the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, the revelation
of Jesus Christ. The birth of Jesus Christ was
on the slides. When his mother, Mary, was espoused
to Joseph, engaged, before they came together as husband and
wife, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. And Joseph,
her husband, being engaged, but the engagement then was a serious
thing. It was more than she carrying
around a ring on her finger. All right, before they came together,
then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to
make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately.
Now, says, you know, he had the love of God in his heart. And
this is not what I intended, and this is not what I wanted,
but things have come out like this, and I'm just gonna put
her away privately, and I'm gonna step out of the scene, and I'm
not gonna create a scene, and I'm just gonna leave it alone.
Well, like all men, we need sleep, don't we? And it says, while he thought
on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to
take unto thee Mary thy wife. For that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son.
And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Now in my Bible, Jesus is about
this tall. All capitals. Call his name Jesus. Now all this was done that it
might fulfill which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying,
behold, the virgin shall be with child, shall bring forth a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted
as God with us. And Joseph being raised from
sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took
unto him his wife and knew her not till she had brought forth
her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. For he shall save. Now that word
Jesus means Savior. And Jesus in the New Testament
is the same word that we find in the Old Testament, Joshua.
And that's why Joshua makes such a beautiful picture of our Savior
as he took the children of Israel into the promised land. Thank
God Almighty Moses was left out. He's a picture of the law. And
God does not save his people by the law. He saves his people
by his Son and by grace. So his name is Jesus. Now, turn
with me over to the book of Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 8, and I
want to show you that while the translators were going along,
they got confused a time or two, and this is one of them. And
it's so confused, they put Jesus here when it should have been
Joshua. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 8. Now,
anything that the Lord intended to do, he accomplished. So if
someone says they didn't get the job done, it certainly is
not talking about the Lord Jesus. It might be talking about Joshua,
and that's what has happened right here. Hebrews chapter 4,
verse 8, shall call his name Jesus. Same name, Old Testament
Joshua, New Testament Jesus. And here in the book of Hebrews
chapter 4 and verse 8, for if Jesus had given them rest, then
would he not afterward have spoken of another day. And it goes on
to tell us what the Lord did for us, but this should have
been translated Joshua and probably your Bibles have done that. Okay,
it should be Joshua because Joshua got didn't get all things done
because he's human but the Lord Jesus Christ did and I looked
this up in the concordance and I went down through I knew it
was in here I was trying to find it went down and down, you know,
how many times Jesus is mentioned in the concordance? Oh I'm going
down going down going down going down couldn't find it. I knew
it was in a book of Hebrews at the last It says, word number
two, Jesus, should be translated Joshua. And in most of the Bibles,
they've done that. So there was such a view about
the relationship, the view of Joshua and Jesus naming in the
same thing that this was translated incorrectly here and it should
have been Joshua. All right, Jesus is savior. It's
a name given to the virgin born son of God. He is the son of
man. He is the body that was prepared. I want us to look at the book
of Hebrews I think it's chapter 3. Hebrews chapter 3. Excuse me,
chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14.
Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. Now this is the body that's prepared.
This is Jesus. This is the son that was given.
This is the child that was given. There has always been the eternal
son of God. And at this moment, the eternal
son of God takes upon himself flesh. That's Jesus. For as much, then, as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it is
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. So he
took upon himself a form like his brethren. He took upon himself
flesh and blood." Now that's the Jesus, the Savior. Now the other part that we have
here, the revelation of Jesus Christ Christ means anointed. We get the word Messiah in the
Old Testament from the same word that we have Christ in the New
Testament. It means anointed. It means to be set apart. It
is the same thing that took place. In fact, in the Old Testament,
the word Messiah and anointed many times are translated from
the same word and it was what happened to the priest and is
what the priest did. They anointed. He was set apart
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
This is the eternal son of God. This is a word, a definition,
a name given to the eternal son of God, the Messiah, the promised
one. And when they come together in
the body that was prepared, the son of God coming to the son
of man, it is called, as we read, There is one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This is the marriage between
the eternal everlasting Son of God from the covenant of grace
and the body that was prepared. So when we go to the book of
Revelation, we're looking at the revelation, the revealing
of Jesus, the savior of his people that has been promised from eternity,
the everlasting Son of God. When we go over there to the
book of the Old Testament, we read about one that's been sitting
on a throne, a kingdom. He has a kingdom. It's not down
here on this earth. It's in heaven. And his kingdom
is made up of his subjects. And he's drawing them out of
every kindred people and tongue throughout all time, and making
up one body, which is his body, the body of believers, the body
of Christ. This is his anointed. They have
been anointed like he has been anointed. Now, it tells us there
in the book of Acts, he was delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Now, I don't understand all I
know about that, but he was delivered in that covenant of grace. And
he purposed in himself, as well as the others in the Godhead,
to lay down his life, a ransom for his sheep, so that they could
go free. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. In the Council Halls of Eternity,
God the Father gave the Son a gift, and that gift is people, and
it's the most glorious part that we could ever be in, because
those are the ones that are going to be awakened, enlightened,
revealed, allowed to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and in eternity, Learn of the mystery of godliness, the glories
of Jesus Christ, the marriage between the eternal Son and the
Son that was given, a marriage between spirit and flesh. eternal in the heavens. And it
is because of that that we can know him as our Savior. He could
not lay down his life unless he became like us. And for a
season on the cross, he laid aside his deities for the suffering
of death. So as we go through this, We're
going to see the revelation of the Savior, the Anointed One,
the Messiah, the One that's been sought after and looked for,
the One that Abraham looked for, the One that Joseph looked for
and Mary looked for, and the One we look for as He comes the
second time. So it is the revelation of Jesus. You shall call His name Jesus. for he shall save his people
from their sins. This is the savior. And along with that, we're gonna
find so often in scripture, the term Christ, which means it didn't
start in Bethlehem. It didn't start under David. David wrote a lot about the Messiah.
It didn't start with Adam. It started before the foundation
of the world. And we find in the book of Revelation
that he was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Before Adam was created and placed in the Garden of Eden, there
was a lamb. And this is a sacrificial lamb.
This is a lamb that's for sacrifice purposes. And he was set aside
before the world began. And in time, he came and was
born Jesus. We know him as Jesus Christ,
and we often add the word Messiah, but we're just saying Christ
in two different ways. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. We're just saying it again. We're
emphasizing Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, Messiah. We've just said it four
times. Who he is and the names we find
him in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament share with
us many glories about the Lord now, so we start this book. This is the revelation of the
Savior the Anointed One. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This is the revelation of the
Messiah. We can go through as we go through. We're looking
for him. We're looking for him. We're
looking for his ministry. We're looking for what he does
for his sheep. We're not looking for mysteries in the sense of
what's gonna happen to this world. We're looking for what God's
doing with this world. We're looking for what Christ
is doing with this world and how he rules over it and how
many times everybody in the world bows down. Everything in the
earth and under the earth and beside the earth and beneath
the earth bow down in his presence. and the glory of this land and
every enemy that comes up against him without reservation. Now they may look like Sputniks
and they may look like these helicopters that could just take
a whole town off the face of the earth. They may look like
serpents, whatever. My enemies are kind of ugly.
Sin is ugly. Every enemy of the church is
ugly. We could describe it in a thousand different ways and
not make it beautiful, but every one of them is going to fall
under the mighty hand of God. And it doesn't matter what we
describe them like. We can describe what is that, that thing that's
got that tail. Scorpion. We can describe it
like that. Got poison in his tail. It's
just going to fall. whatever it looks like, and however
it's described, it's going to fall. Jesus Christ is going to
reign. And he is going to sit at the
right hand of the Father with his feet on his footstool. He's going to be waiting until
every enemy is made his footstool. And the worst enemy in this world
to the Lord Jesus Christ are his lost sheep before he brings
them in. Saul of Tarsus is an example. He was a wicked man,
and Jesus Christ put his foot on his neck, and he bowed, and
he made him his footstool. And you know what? The church
says, wherever you want me. Do you want me to move just a
little bit? I'll move for you. That's what the church will do
for Jesus Christ. He's the king. All right, we're
going to stop there, and then we'll pick up here in the book
of Revelation as we start this first chapter. It just, the light
blinds you. We're gonna see the Lord, and
if you painted this and said this is what he looks like, it's
a monstrosity. If you say this is such a glorious
picture of his spiritual person, we go away saying, man, that
is beautiful. All wise, all knowing, all powerful. He has his way and sway. He leads and directs and commands. We just walk away and say, that's
my God. That's my God. And we just thank God for it.
All right, we'll get into that first chapter and see the description
that God gives of his son. Eyes as a flame of fire. a sword in his mouth. Now, if we painted literal, we're
going to have a problem. If we paint spiritual, we're
going to have the most beautiful. We're going to have the Song
of Solomon's view of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's altogether
lovely.