I invite your attention to the
last book in the Bible. The revelation of Jesus Christ
is the name of this last book in the Bible. And I want you
to locate chapter 1. My text is found in verse number
7 and this message is titled we shall see him whom we pierced. Revelation chapter one. I'm going to begin reading in
verse number one. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
that's the name of this book, which God gave to him, that is
God gave this to Jesus, to show his servants, the servants of
Jesus, things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified
it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the
word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ and to all things
that he saw. Blessed is he who reads. This
is the first beatitude in the book of Revelation we observed
in our lesson this morning. There are seven beatitudes in
the book of the Revelation. Here is the first one. Blessed
is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy
and keep those things which are written in it for the time is
near. John, that's John the Apostle, he's the writer of this book.
He's not the author of it. The author of it is Jesus Christ
through his spirit. But here is John, the writer
of the book, and he writes to the seven churches which are
in Asia. His salutation is, graced to
you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. and from the seven spirits who
are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ. So we have God the Father in
the first part of verse 4. Him who is and who was and who
is to come. We have the Holy Spirit and the
seven spirits before his throne. And here we have Jesus Christ
in verse number 5. He is the faithful witness, the
firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the
earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father,
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And here's my text. Behold. He is coming with clouds, and
every eye will see Him, and they also who pierced Him. And all
the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him, even so. Amen. Now, as I said, my message
is titled We shall see him whom we pierced. My text begins, our
text begins with that word behold. And this word behold is a call
to attention. When you are told to behold something,
someone is saying, I need your attention. I want to direct your
attention to this object. Behold! This word grabs our attention. It's intended to do so. When
Jehovah sent Jesus Christ into this world, he said, Behold your
God. Isaiah 40 verses 9 through 11,
meaning that Jesus Christ is worthy of your attention. Even
God the Father said, behold your God. Well, Jesus Christ was worthy
of our attention, not only when he came to earth the first time,
but when he returns to earth for the second coming. Therefore,
behold. We're told, behold, he is coming. Now, that should not surprise
us. He came the first time and then
he said, I'm going to come again. But I cannot come again unless
I leave you. But if I go, I will come again. Now, did he go? He went. Is He coming back? Most certainly.
Behold, He is coming because He said He would. He promised
it. Behold, He is coming. And behold,
He is coming with clouds. That should not surprise us.
Repeatedly, Jesus Christ prophesied of his return on the clouds of
heaven. Matthew 24, verse 30. Matthew
26, verse 64. And observe also on the day that
he ascended into glory. He was crucified. Three days
later, arose from the dead. For 40 days, walked upon this
earth. and then ascended back into glory. Now when he ascended into glory,
he was in the presence of his disciples. And as he is there
talking with them, all of a sudden, he begins to ascend. And they
look, and there is a cloud, and there are angels as well. They have come to take Jesus
home. He is received into the cloud,
and an angel comes down and talks to Jesus' disciples. He says,
why are you so surprised? Why? This same Jesus who just
left from you will come back just like he left. Now how did
he leave? In the clouds. The Bible says
he ascended into the cloud and the cloud received him and took
him home. In other places in scripture
we read that God rides on the cloud. In another place we read
that the clouds are the dust under his feet. When you see
the clouds going across the sky, God's riding. God is riding. When Jesus comes back, He's coming
with clouds. Behold, He is coming with clouds. And then we read, Behold, every
eye will see Him. Every eye. This includes everyone
who ever lived. This includes Everyone who is
alive on the day when he returns plus everyone who already was
dead before he returns. Every eye will see him. Adam
and Eve, Cain and Abel, Seth, and everybody since then. Every
eye will see him. Now, How can it be that every eye
will see him? Notice that the scripture does
not say every one will see him. Every eye will see him. Do you realize that very shortly
after you die, your eyes will no longer exist? no longer exist. How can it be that these eyes
that you have, which will no longer exist as eyes, how can
it be that your body will be there when Jesus Christ returns? Some bodies have been laid into
tombs and eventually they return to the dust whence they came. Some bodies have been buried
at sea, and their ashes have been going now to the seven seas. Some have had their bodies cremated,
their eyeballs as well, everything cremated, and then threw their
ashes to the four winds. When I was in Guyana, I went
to a place where a certain religion burns the bodies of their dead. It was right beside the ocean.
They burn the bodies of their dead and then they throw the
ashes into the river that empties into the ocean. And now, this
man who's been cremated, ashes thrown into the river, the river
goes into the ocean, the ocean goes into the seven seas, why
his ashes are probably scattered all across the earth or its waters. And if they're thrown into the
wind, who knows? How is it that your body will
one day stand with its eyeballs in place and see Jesus Christ
when he returns? There'll be two things that'll
happen. First, there is a general resurrection of all the dead,
a resurrection of the just and of the unjust. It will occur
at the final day. I cannot explain how it will
happen because I do not know, but this I know. Every particle
of every body that turns to dust or that was cremated and thrown
as ashes or buried at sea, the bodies of everyone would be resurrected
in some way. God will take care of that. and
every eye will see him when he returns. They will see him because
not only will all be resurrected, that is all who die, but furthermore
they will see him in judgment because there not only is a general
resurrection of all the dead but also a general judgment of
all. We must all Stand before the
judgment seat of Christ that each one of us may receive the
things done in the body every eye will see him and Particularly
are we told notice even they who pierced him Even they who
pierced him now, who are they who pierced him? Jesus Christ
has been pierced and in two different ways, and every one of us has
pierced him. He has been pierced physically,
and he has been pierced spiritually. Now consider they who pierced
him physically at first. These would be the Roman soldiers. These would be the ones who pierced
his back with their whip. They pierced his head with their
crown of thorns. They pierced his hands and his
feet with their spikes. They pierced his side with a
spear. They shall look upon him whom
they pierced. Complicit with them were many
others. The Roman governor Pilate, he
also is guilty of this. He is complicit with the soldiers
because he told them to do it. The Sanhedrin, the high priest
of Israel, they are complicit in the physical piercing of Jesus
Christ because they demanded it be done. And the people of
the Jews, they also are complicit in this because when Pilate wanted
to turn Jesus loose, they said, No! Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Therefore, they did. When Jesus Christ was pierced,
they did it, the Roman soldiers and everyone complicit with them.
That's Pilate, the governor, Caiaphas, the priest, the Sanhedrin,
and the people who demanded it. And they shall look upon him
whom they pierced. Now, Jesus Christ has also been
pierced spiritually. And these who pierce him spiritually
are of various sorts, two in particular. Jesus Christ has
been spiritually pierced by those who reject him and by those who
refuse to believe his gospel. Their unbelief in him and their
rejection of him has pierced him. They who pierced him included
his own people. They just took the spear of their
unbelief and cast it into his heart because, we read, he came
unto his own and his own received him not. Furthermore, they said,
we will not have this man to reign over us. When Jesus Christ
came, being sent by God, and they rejected him, it was a spear
of rejection cast right into his heart. Then, there is also
the spear of unbelief that has been cast by those who refuse
to believe his gospel. Jesus Christ has come to you
and to me through the preaching of his gospel. When you hear
the gospel of Jesus Christ being preached, He is coming to you. Now listen to Him because He
speaks to you through the preaching of the gospel. He says, Look
unto Me and be saved all you ends of the earth. And what do
we do? We take the spear of unbelief
and cast it into his heart and say, we will not look to you
and we look the other way. Jesus says, come to me, all you
who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He
speaks that word through the preaching of the gospel. And
we take the spear of unbelief and cast it into his heart and
say, We will not come to you. We will not come to you. We are
not willing to come to you. Now, every one of us has done
this. Every one of us have joined the
Jews in rejecting Jesus Christ. And we have cast a spear of rejection. We have cast a spear of unbelief
into Jesus Christ. It is no wonder. that Jesus looked
upon the city of Jerusalem and wept. He wept. They had pierced
him in every way they could imagine. There is another group that pierces
him. These are those described in Hebrews 6, verse 6, as those
who would crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to
an open shame. Notice that. Crucify again for
themselves. Or they would pierce again the
Son of Man and put Him to an open shame. Who are they? They
are professing Christians who claim that they may depart from
Christ and return to sin, and then repent of sin the second
time and return to Christ. Or, if you will, these are professing
Christians who believe they may be saved today lost Tamara, re-saved
the next day. If you read Hebrews chapter 6,
and by the way, this is the text that was being preached on the
day the Lord saved my wife. But if you look at that text,
what the writer tells us is that this is thoroughly impossible.
It is impossible for one to leave Christ and then repent and come
back to Christ because if he were to be resaved, Christ must
be crucified a second time and put to an open shame. And yet
there are people, you can find them on this island and all around
us, they say, we believe we may be saved today and lost tomorrow
and resaved the next day. And then they go about proving
it. You want to know why? They love their sin. They love
theirs. They won't be called Christians,
but they want to go back and live in sin and then hope that
they are good enough clock keepers that they can repent before Jesus
comes back. It's impossible, but they would
do it. They would willingly let Jesus Christ be pierced again
for them. And they shall look upon him
whom they pierced. They shall look upon him whom
they pierced, and all the tribes of the earth
will mourn because of him." All the tribes. They who pierced
Jesus Christ will mourn when they see him coming in his wrath
against them. You can read about them in Revelation
6 verses 15 through 17 in these words. And the kings of the earth,
the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and
in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day
of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" Imagine the
horror on that day that will just seize the heart of Herod
the king when he sees Jesus Christ coming. He says, I crucified
him, I pierced him, and now here he comes. Imagine the sheer terror
that will grip his heart. And the Roman governor, Pontius
Pilate, Caiaphas the high priest, all the members of the Sanhedrin,
all those people who said, crucify him, let his blood be on us and
on our children. And they got their wish, they
pierced him, and here he comes. Here he comes. And all the tribes
of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. Even so, amen. And that's the end of the text. And I gotta tell you, this text
ends on a dreadful note. That's a dreadful note. But give me a moment, because
I think I can end this message On a sweeter note. Look at that phrase. Every eye
will see Him, even they who pierced Him. All the tribes of the earth
will mourn because of Him. Look at that phrase. That comes
from the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. Locate
Zechariah if you can. Quickly here, Zechariah chapter
12. It's in the Old Testament. Toward
the end of the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 12. And I want you to look at this
prophecy. Because these words in the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Here in chapter 1 verse 7. come
the prophecy of Zechariah chapter 12. And the prophecy is found
in verse number 10 of Zechariah 12. And here are the words. And remember, these words are
spoken by Jehovah. This is Jehovah speaking. Here's
what he said. Zechariah 12 verse 10. will pour
on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom
they pierced. Did you read that? It means what
it says. Jehovah says they will pierce
me and they will look upon me whom they pierced. Yes, they
will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for
him as one grieves for a firstborn. Jehovah said they will grieve
for me whom they pierced and they will grieve for him whom
they pierced. This one who is pierced is the
son of man and is Jehovah. This one who is pierced is Jesus
Christ. And this prophecy was fulfilled
on the day when he was crucified on Calvary. Locate John chapter
19, verse 33. John chapter 19, verse 33. I want you to see the fulfillment
of this prophecy written in Zechariah 12 verse 10 and fulfilled on
Mount Calvary in John chapter 19. And I'm going to begin reading
in verse number 33. John chapter 19 verse 33. But when they, the soldiers who
pierced and crucified Jesus, but when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. They were going to break the
legs of all three men who were hanged on the tree that day so
that those men would not be able to walk away. But one of the soldiers, pardon
me, they saw that Jesus was already
dead, and they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers
pierced his side with a spear, went all the way to the heart,
because immediately blood and water came out. And he who has
seen has testified, And his testimony is true. And he knows that he
is telling the truth so that you may believe. And this one
is John the Apostle who wrote this account. He continues, For
these things were done that the Scripture in Psalm 34 verse 40
should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones should be
broken. And again, another Scripture to be fulfilled. Zechariah 12
verse 10 says, They shall look upon him whom they pierced. They shall look on him whom they
pierced. And this prophecy was fulfilled
in the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus Christ. They were there
when his back was pierced with their whip. They were there when
his head was pierced with their crown of thorns. They were there when his cross was laid on the
ground and he was laid a straddle of his cross on his back. These
men took their spikes and they pounded the spikes through his
hands and through his feet to nail him to the cross. They pierced him. And as they
did, Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. He's praying for these Roman
soldiers. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Now let me ask you something.
Do you suppose God answered that prayer favorably? God, the Father, who said, that's
my son, you hear him. Do you suppose the Father hears
him? Jesus prays, Father, forgive them, they know not what they
do. I mean, because this is important for me. I need to know the answer
to this question, because right now, Jesus has his pierced hands
in front of God, and he's pleading for me. Father, forgive that
ignorant Moose Parks. He has no idea what he's doing.
Yes, sometimes I do. But other times I sin ignorantly
in my ignorance, and he's there pleading. Father, forgive Moose. He knows not what he does. And
I'm hoping God hears that prayer. I know he does, but I'm asking
you, you agree with me? Jesus is praying, Father forgive
them, they do not know what they do. I am confident God heard
that prayer and said, I will, I will. How do we know? Because
then the soldiers, we read, they sat down to watch him. They sat
down to watch Him. They nailed Him to the cross,
lifted that cross up, dropped it down into the ground, and
then they sat down to watch Him. That means they looked on Him
whom they pierced. And then, at the very end, Jesus
shouts in victory, It is finished. It is finished. And he expired. Then something else happened.
The earth quaked. And the sun quit shining. The
earth was plunged into darkness. And the earth quaked. And here
are these brave, sturdy, stout, Roman soldiers, and they're looking
around and seeing what happened after looking on him whom they
pierced. The centurion is said to have looked around at his
comrades and he said, comrades, we have killed a righteous man. We have killed a righteous man. And the Bible says that he and
the soldiers with him They trembled and said, that was the Son of
God. That one we pierced is the Son
of God. Does it not appear to you? that
God answered that prayer of Jesus, Father forgive them, that the
spirit of grace and supplication, God heard the prayer of Jesus,
and while these Roman soldiers are looking on him whom they
pierced, God poured his spirit of grace and supplication on
them, and they mourned and repented. They mourned and repented. I
fully expect to see them in glory. I believe God answered that prayer
of Jesus. Now, there were others as well.
There were others of the Jews who were there as well. You can
read about them later in Luke 23 verse 48, because we read
that the whole crowd who came together to that site, seeing
what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. They came
to the cross of Christ and saw Him whom they pierced, They smoked
their breasts, which was a Jewish action that was done as though
to say, if I could grasp my heart out of my chest, I would pull
it out and beat it to death. They smoked their breasts, they
wept and returned to the city. A few days later, on the day
of Pentecost, these who crucified Jesus Christ have gathered together
in Jerusalem for the feast. And the Spirit of God comes down,
the Spirit of grace and supplication. The Spirit of God came down,
and it was though there were cloven tongues of fire on the
heads of the apostles, and they stepped outside into the street
where these thousands of Jews had come to Jerusalem. And they
wonder what's going on. And Peter preaches the gospel
to them. And he tells them, you remember
just a few days ago, you wicked people, you took Jesus of Nazareth
and you nailed Him to the cross. And he describes what they had
done. And the spirit of grace and supplication
was poured down from God on high. And these Jews who demanded that
He be crucified, they began to cry out, Men and brethren, what
shall we do? What shall we do? That's supplication. That's supplication. And it is
supplication coming from the grace of God. They cried out,
We need to do something. We have pierced Him. What shall
we do? And Peter said, Repent and be
baptized. Receive remission of your sins.
And they did. They did. They looked upon him
whom they pierced in supplication. This prophecy has been fulfilled
many times since then. It was fulfilled in me. I have
reason to believe it's been fulfilled in some of you. Jesus Christ
came to you through the preaching of the gospel. The gospel was
preached You had taken your spear of rejection, you had thrown
it at Him. Your spear of unbelief, you had thrown it at Him. You
tried to pierce His heart. And here He comes yet again.
He comes to you in the preaching of the gospel. And now for the
first time your eyes are opened and you see Him whom you crucified. Whom you crucified. Whom you
pierced. with your unbelief and your rejection. And the spirit of grace and supplication
is poured out. And I, like those Jews on the
day of Pentecost, what must I do? What must I do to be saved? I
have pierced him. What shall I do? And what is
the word? Repent of your sins and believe
in Jesus Christ. I have looked on him whom I pierced.
I have mourned my sin. And the wounds that I inflicted
saved me. By his stripes, we are healed. By his wounds, the blood was
shed that redeemed my soul. And one of these days, he's coming
back. And I am going to look on him
whom I pierced in my rejection and in my unbelief. He's going
to come back. I'm going to see him. These eyes,
oh, they may be disintegrated by that time, may have been cremated
or buried at sea or buried. Something might have happened,
whatever happened. These eyes are going to see him.
And I'm going to say, come Lord Jesus! Because in the book of
Revelation 22 he says, I'm coming and I'm going to say, even so,
come Lord Jesus, I want to see it. I would be happy if it were
today. I would be happy if today when
we step outside this building and get ready to go home, we
look up into the eastern sky and there he is! What a happy
sight that would be, him whom we pierced. Would you not be
happy? If you believe in him, you will. Even so, come Lord
Jesus. But on the other hand, they who pierced him and never
repented, they're gonna see him also. And they will weep and
wail and mourn. and call for that mountain. Fall
on me. Fall on me. Hide me. The lamb
is coming. He's coming in his wrath and
I'm not ready. And I hope that no one here today is in that
number. Not a one of you, I hope not a one of you. Before you
leave, go through that door today, ascertain this, that you look
on him whom you pierced and believe and trust in him. and trust in
that blood that you shed. Trust in him for the salvation
of your soul and rejoice when he comes back. And oh God, our
father, to the glory of your name and to the honor of your
son, Jesus Christ, bless this word we pray in his name, amen.