Quite a
large number of you were not with us this morning. The
word then was foundational to what the Lord has given me
for this conference. I will do my best, without wearying
those who were present with a repetition, to help you all
into the message.
We are
occupied with revelation of Jesus Christ. Or the word can
be changed and retain the same meaning - the unveiling of
Jesus Christ. I think it is impossible to take up this
book which has that as its title and begin to read
without very early in our reading becoming aware that a
tremendous piece of business is on hand. The impression
that very quickly begins to take hold of us is: we're in
the settling of some big issue. We are faced with some
tremendous and momentous decision. Everything here says:
now a long outstanding question is going to be answered.
A long standing issue is going to be settled. The time
has come when what has been a matter of controversy and
conflict for a very long time, is going to be headed up
and settled. Surely that is what ought to be the
impression as we begin to read.
Anybody who
can take up this book and begin at the first chapter and
even in the first words and just read it as something
printed without becoming aware that there is something
tremendous involved and in view, surely has missed the
whole meaning and value of the book.
And that is
just what the book is all about. It is the settling of
this controversy which has gone on through the ages, this
answering of the question, this concluding of the whole
matter and writing forever and ever: "FINISHED"
to one phase. And that matter, that issue, that
controversy, that question, is just "Who is going to
govern this universe throughout the ages of the
ages?" Who is going to govern? That has been a
matter of contention through thousands of years from the
creation. All history has circled round THAT
matter, THAT question. Now, says this book,
we're going to settle it once and for all. And when you
have really got hold of that, you've got the key to the
book and to everything that is in it. It will interpret
all that is in this book, much, as we said this morning,
that is difficult to understand in itself, almost
bewildering in its detail and the manner and form of its
presentation.
But I shall
go on to say, well what does that mean? Well, in some way
that relates to this ultimate and consummate issue: the
government of this universe as God intended when He
created it. The issue is: NOW is come the Kingdom of our
God and of His Christ - the climax of history. Well now,
that helps you right into where we were this morning with
a great deal of detail and we proceed.
From that
and with that, we're going to look into the part of the
first chapter we read earlier and work right to this very
matter we have mentioned. Notice it begins with the
revelation of Jesus Christ. That's grand! That's fine!
All that is coming subsequently, the warfare and the
welfare of kingdoms and nations; all the manifold
movements, comes back to this. Alright, the revelation of
Jesus Christ. That stands over it all, is the answer of
it all; the unveiling of Jesus Christ. How HE stands
related to EVERYTHING in this universe. It is a
revelation of Jesus Christ. The same word is here as Paul
used in his prayer in the letter to the Ephesians
"That He would grant unto you a spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Christ". Spirit of
revelation; unveiling in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
That's what it is. And this unveiling or revelation is
here said to have been something that God GAVE
to His Son. It needs a good deal, perhaps of imagination
and quiet thought, to grasp the significance of these
statements, but here in the language of men it is said
God let His Son see HIS place in relation to all
the consummatory movements and activities of the ages.
Where HE stands as the ages are brought to their
culmination and their consummation. Father God gives to
His Son to see His place in it all; "which He showed
or gave to His Son".
And then it
goes on, "to show to His bondservants". That is
general, not particular, not just to apostles, not to
some special people, just to His bondservants. You and I
come into that category, the bondservants or bondslaves
of Jesus Christ. This unveiling is given by God to the
Son, through an angel, to John, for us. The point is that
any true servant of God ought to be acquainted with all
that appertains to the purpose of God in Christ Jesus and
He sent and signified it to His bondservant John.
Notice the
title John gives to himself; he does not say "John
the apostle of Jesus Christ". He calls himself
"the bondservant" and then in verse 9 he says
"I, John, your brother". John always speaks on
the Family basis and level, brings himself into very
close relationship with those to whom he writes, as a
member of the Family. He brings them right in, not on
official ground, but on the ground of Life. We're in this
with John, that is what John is saying, we're in this
with him on the very basis of family life: "I, John,
your brother". Brother!
"In
the isle that's called Patmos, for the testimony of
Jesus", he says, "for the testimony of Jesus
and being there I am your brother and partaker with you
in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in
Jesus". Be patient as we work on through these
details: on the isle Patmos... for the testimony of
Jesus... partaker with you in the tribulation, kingdom
and patience in Jesus. Now the question at once arises,
which gets us very near to the heart of the whole matter:
Why was John in Patmos? Because, he says, for the
testimony of Jesus. But that is not very enlightening.
The question is a bigger one than that, why was John in
Patmos? And being in Patmos in the tribulation that is in
Jesus. And the answer to that question is in this whole
book. It takes the whole book really, to answer that
question.
And may I
say here by way of parenthesis, incidentally, the answer
may account for the tremendous battle that has raged over
this book. You know, or you may not know, the very great
battle raged over the admission of this book into the
canon of the Scriptures. Oh, what a battle to have it
bound up in the divine library! To allow it to be
included in the Bible! A real big battle raged over that,
but at last the battle was won for its inclusion. I take
that as having some significance. But then what a battle
over the book since it's been in! We pointed out this
morning the many diverse schools of interpretation, the
controversy that has raged over this book through the
centuries, the confusion that has been brought about by
the way in which the book has been handled, all the
divisions that have sprung up and there is no end to
them. Only about a year or so, a year, eighteen months
ago; a new division sprang up in America over this very
book, a fresh split on its interpretation and they're
fighting, they're at one another's throats about this
quite minor point of interpretation; but there it is.
What does it mean? I say, that there is an explanation to
all that, it is not just hap.
The answer
to our question, I think, may be the explanation of that
long, drawn-out controversy around this book. The answer,
then, as to why was John in Patmos is in the first place
found in that which obtained in the world at that time in
the form of emperor worship. You, some of you, will know
that the ruling Caesars claimed to be divine and
therefore they claimed human worship. Somebody has said
they posed as gods and did the work of the devil. That's
significant. Julius Caesar was worshiped. Octavianus was
called Augustus - "Reverenced". Caligula
demanded that his image should be put up in the Holy of
Holies in the temple in Jerusalem; he was killed before
he was able to do it. That carries some significance. And
this emperor under whom we believe John was exiled to
Patmos, Domitian, was called - actually called - 'our
lord and god'. They usurped the place of God. They
claimed the worship of man; they took to themselves
deity.
So, the
issue is clear-cut. There is no mistaking it, it is
Caesar or Christ! For THE apostolic proclamation
everywhere was without any mistaking it: Jesus Christ
is Lord! That's the testimony of Jesus for which
John was sent to Patmos. The issue is clear-cut, quite
clear-cut. It's a very significant thing that the Jews
were dealt with comparatively leniently. Were the
Christians? They did suffer under Rome but they suffered
nothing like the sufferings of the Christians. I say
that's significant! THEY had crucified the Lord
of glory therefore the devil is not so much concerned
about them, but THESE people, THESE
people who will have no compromise on this matter; the
absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ as God! As the Son of
God! There can be no reconciling Caesar and Christ,
Christ and Caesar. That's the issue. And, dear friends,
when John says 'in the tribulation in Christ' the
implication is that the tribulation or the suffering is
ALWAYS proportionate to the place that you give the Lord
Jesus. If you give Him a second or a third place, well
you will have a comparatively easy time. Put Him where
God has put Him, make Him Lord of all and of everything,
and you're in for tribulation. In for tribulation! So it
was with John.
All this
surely is gathered up into the very titles; Jesus Christ
the faithful Witness, Firstborn of the dead, the Ruler of
the kings of the earth. Say that in the face of the
Caesars; the Ruler of the kings of the earth! You're in
for it! You're in for it when you realize what store the
Caesars set by their divine prerogative. The Ruler of the
kings of the earth - Jesus! Jesus Christ! You and I, dear
friends, never realize the implication of that title, you
know that "Christ" is only the Greek for the
Hebrew "Messiah", the whole conception both of
the Hebrew and the Greek Messiah and Christ, was His
Kingship; Anointed! Anointed. The Kristos! The Anointed
of God and that Anointed meant nothing less than absolute
Rulership, Supremacy. To speak that Name: Jesus the
Anointed, Jesus the Messiah, is at once to throw a
challenge at that whole empire of the Caesars. No wonder
the apostle said no man can call Jesus Christ but by the
Holy Ghost. They knew it. You wondered what that means
because you can all call Jesus Christ, glibly, easily and
say Jesus is Christ. Ah, but go into that realm, live in THAT
day and it would be the most terrifying thing to publicly
say "Jesus of Nazareth is the Anointed of God to be
the Ruler of the kings of the earth". You need the
Holy Ghost to make you bold enough to say that.
And dear
friends, that is not so remote, in the past. There are
many, many today who are afraid so to speak of Him and
afraid for their lives. You can go into fanatical
Mohammedan countries and proclaim Jesus the Christ, the
Son of God; you do it with your life in your hand. You
need the Holy Ghost for that boldness. So you see, here
we are right at the heart of this thing. Jesus Christ...
the Faithful and True Witness. That word 'Witness' as you
probably know, is the same word as 'martyr', the Faithful
Martyr. Alright, John's in good company. Jesus Christ the
Faithful Martyr, the Faithful and True Witness. It cost
Him His life to stand for His Kingdom. It cost Him His
life at the hands of every devil-inspired instrument that
knew the issue. Knew the issue! The issue of that Man was
nothing less than the dominion of this world and the
devil knew it. So He would say 'you are of your father
the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning'. They
murdered the Prince of life on this one matter - His
place in the eternal counsels of God as Lord, as King,
Firstborn from the dead, I'll have something more to say
about that shortly, Ruler of the kings of the earth.
Well, these
titles just set forth the stages of His progress to the
throne:-
Faithful Martyr; that was the Way of the Cross.
Firstborn from the dead; the Way of the divine
Vindication.
Ruler of the kings of the earth; that is the glorious End
of the Cross and the Resurrection.
Ruler!
Ruler of the kings of the earth! Satan, who knew Him, yes
Satan's agents and [powers] betrayed their knowledge of
Him when they, the demons, said "I know Thee Whom
Thou art, the holy One of God, I know Thee!" Satan
knew Him and knew His divine destiny and so he took Him
up into a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms
of this world, the glory thereof and said "All this
will I give Thee if Thou wilt..." now here we are,
back on this thing, "worship me"! Worship,
where worship is to be. You see, here is the Caesars
again. Worship me! Jesus refused that dominion at the
hand of Satan and took it by the Cross! And here, this
book sees Him in possession of it: the Ruler of the kings
of the earth! If you have any question about that by
reason of the seeming power of world rulers in our time;
power, world systems, how they do afflict the Church and
the saints... read the book of the Acts again and you
will see in that book the Ruler of the kings of the earth
wielding His power and Herod learned something of that
and others.
We know
now, we know now that this wonderful book of the
revelation of Jesus Christ has been fulfilled in a very
large degree. The very empire that denied Him His place
and Lordship and set itself to destroy every trace of His
Kingship, has gone to dust. Daniel has a very, very real
place here, hasn't he? Remember then the vision and the
fourth kingdom of iron which undoubtedly was the Roman
empire, and in the days when that kingdom has been
reached from Babylon onward, in the days when the Roman
empire has come into being, the vision goes on and I
think we've lost a good deal of the real point of that
vision - the God of heaven, the God of heaven produces a
Kingdom. "I saw, I saw in a vision, a stone, cut
without hands". Oh, I would like to dwell upon that
for half an hour - a stone cut without hands! And it
smote the image and the image, by that smiting, crumbled
to dust but the stone itself rolled on and as it rolled,
gathering momentum, it gathered volume until it filled
the whole earth! We're [really] IN that, we're
in that! This empire which set itself up against the Lord
and His Christ was smitten by that Stone cut without
hands, and it has crumbled to dust, there's no doubt
about it, it's literally fulfilled! But the Stone... the
Stone of this other Kingdom of our Lord and His Christ,
has gone on gathering momentum and gathering volume as it
has gone on, reaching to all the nations. Well, that
perhaps doesn't stir you very much, it's so commonplace,
you know it. But here we are, the Ruler of the kings of
the earth, He came to that position through the suffering
of death.
For the
time being, as I have said, I am leaving out that section
which gives us the revelation of Jesus Christ in person;
we come to that again perhaps. Here let us note that we
are now introduced at this point to two things - firstly
His victory. His victory. And that can be summed up in
two or three verses: "I am the First and the Last,
the Living One, I became dead, behold I am alive
forevermore and have the keys of death and of
Hades". That's His victory. The other is His
character which we shall reserve for another time. Just a
few minutes on this: His victory. "I am the First
and the Last". That's victory in a statement by
itself! And it's important to recognize the significance,
the particular significance, of the use of that title in
relation to this book.
Here we are
at the end, at the consummation of everything. Now we
have come to the culmination of all things and He
declares "I was the beginning of all things".
Go back to Paul's letter to the Colossians for that - in
Him, through Him, unto Him, were all things created,
things in heaven, things in earth, He was before all
things. "I am the First. As I was at the beginning
and as I was the Beginning of all things, I am the Last,
I am the End". The end corresponds to the beginning,
it is no other, it's no other than Himself, "I am
the First and the Last". That's a TREMENDOUS
statement! "I am simply gathering up all things into
My hands, all things in the end are with Me. Everything
has got to answer to Me at the end". In all things
He has the pre-eminence. "I am the Living One, I
became dead". Now, I want to say a word about that
way of expressing in a minute. But first that again,
"I am the Living one, I became dead. I am alive unto
the ages of the ages". There was a reason why the
Lord Jesus said that.
You know,
Nero, under whom the apostle Paul suffered and was
executed, was regarded as perhaps the most ferocious of
all the Caesars up to his time. But there was one who
exceeded him and that was the one under whom John
suffered, this Caesar Domitian. Do you know what was said
about him? This Caesar was said to be Nero come back from
the dead. He was called Nero, "Nero Survived",
raised from the dead, back again to carry on his
nefarious work. John is suffering under the one who is
said to have died and risen again. Jesus takes hold of
that, right hold of that and says "I AM THE LIVING
ONE, I became dead, I AM ALIVE, not for a human tenure
but unto the ages of the ages". So we can accumulate
all this data, material, on this one great issue: the
absolute supremacy of the Lord Jesus.
"I am
the Living One, I became dead". Note, that's really
the correct translation, and He did not say "I was
killed, I was murdered, I was slain, I was put to
death". He had already in His lifetime said "no
man taketh it from me, I lay it down of Myself, Mine own
Self, this authority that I have received from My
Father". Today as we think of all those movements
toward the cross, we can so clearly see through men and
their counsels and decisions and we can see that the
thing is in His hand. He is dictating how it shall be and
when it shall be. They are saying "not this"
and He is saying "yes this". "Not on the
Passover" He says "Yes on the Passover".
He is dictating His own death, its time and its manner -
in His hands. NOT "they took away My
life" - "I laid it down of my own accord. I
became dead. I became dead." WHY? There is another
great question arises at once; WHY did He Himself,
deliberately, of His own accord, of His own decision, go
into death? Well, the letter to the Hebrews throws a lot
of light upon it doesn't it? That PROVED it, "He
might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the
devil"! That He might deliver those who all their
lifetime were in bondage through fear of death. He tasted
DEATH in the behalf of every man. That's why He became
dead.
But here it
is, here it is in this beautiful statement here
"Unto Him that loveth us and loosed us from our sins
in His blood and made us a kingdom and priests unto His
God and Father". That's why He became dead; this
mighty US - this mighty Us - Who loveth US! Christ loved
the Church and gave Himself up for it. Who loving us, Who
loosed us, He might redeem us from all iniquity, Who MADE
us a kingdom and priests unto His God and Father. That's
why He became dead of His own choice: for US! For you,
for me, for His Church. What a mighty US that is. That's
the answer. Christ loved! Christ loosed! From death...
and alive! Became dead and alive to deliver us from
death. Death is the sum total of all human sin. Death is
the sum of all Satan's power. Death is the sum of Satan's
kingdom. "He plunged in His imperial strength, to
cast the darkness down, He brought His trophy up at
length, the foiled usurper's crown." That's why He
became dead, to do that. That's the answer. "And I
have the keys of death and of Hades". Of course keys
are authority, we know that. Authority over death and of
Hades. Jesus has said "Upon this rock I will build
My Church, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against
it. I have the keys of Hades". What is that? For all
their lifetime in bondage through fear of death...
bondage through fear of death - that's the prison of
Hades. He has plundered Hades, He has broken its gates
and its bars. He has snatched the keys from the usurper,
and wears them at His own girdle and His Church is
DELIVERED from that bondage of fear! The gates of Hades
shall NOT prevail against it.
It is all
tremendous, but you see, you've got to place the Cross
over this whole book. The Cross stands over everything in
this book because it's the book of the Lordship of Jesus
Christ in every realm and therefore it is the book of the
Lamb in the throne. In the throne! The Cross is the
explanation of everything.
Well, I
trust you catch a vision, the revelation of Jesus Christ
in this which comprehends all that follows and all that
with which you and I have to do, dear friends. I said
this morning, this is the book which is introduced, or in
its very introduction, tells us that there is a blessing
attached to it. What blessing do you want and do I want?
What is the greatest blessing that could come to our
hearts? It would be to realize the glorious, triumphant
issue of this long, long drawn out battle in which we
are, how it's going to end and to realize it's going to
end in glory. In GLORY! It's going to end with us with
Christ in the throne. To REALIZE it, not just to be
informed. It doesn't have enough wit with us to be told
about it, but oh, if it could come to us as a revelation,
as it came to John in Patmos, in tribulation, in
patience. Suffering... because of this same issue we have
made Jesus Lord, we have put Him in His place, we have no
other Lord. All things for us are subject to Him. He is
over all. And that brings, whether world persecution or
not, it brings spiritual conflict, it brings tribulation
into the life. It touches us everywhere, in our families,
in our homes, in our businesses and everywhere this thing
is touching us; if only, if only we would let go
something, make some compromise, let down our standard,
not be so utter for Christ. We'd have an easier time, it
is possible, you can, CAN for the time being! But you
cast away your crown.
That is it,
to realize that in the tribulation and the patience, the
suffering, and the conflict, and the pressure; the issue,
the issue is absolutely certain. Jesus is coming out on
top and we're coming out with Him. If that could really
come into our hearts, the greatest blessing that could
come to us... it would explain so much, it really would
explain so much. All the problems and enigmas of our
lives, all those things which come because of our
relationship to this One Who is God's destined Heir of
the universe... That provokes quite a lot. I say this is
the blessing of this book, to know that. Not just to
understand all its mysteries and symbols but to know
that. That He IS Lord and that nothing can alter that.
The Lord give us that blessing in our hearts.