Amen. Let us begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, our heart has been all morning that we would get a glimpse of Thee, that we might see Jesus. Oh Lord, that seems to be the only way through.
Lord, we come to You this morning. We ask, as we look into Your Word now, that You would illumine our hearts; that, Lord Jesus, we would have that divine seeing, Lord, that really does make a difference.
Lord, we ask that Your Spirit would anoint to speak and hear. And Lord, Your blood, cover me and every word that is spoken. Lord, for Your Word is precious, and the revelation of Jesus is amazing. How can man even share?
Lord, we come back to Thee. We humble ourselves before Thee. Lord, do open our eyes and ears. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, I have been sharing out of the first chapter of the book of Revelation, and actually, I think this is the fourth message.
The first message—what is on my heart—is the soon return of our Lord Jesus. It could be today. And just that first thought that I had was to awake. We need to be awakened to the nearness of His soon return, brothers and sisters.
It should be something in our spirits and hearts, that we have this sensing that He is almost here, almost ready to return.
And so it was on awakening. In this first chapter, we talked about how it is a blessed thing to read and to take heed of what is in this book of Revelation. It speaks of the blessing.
We shared about the blessed hope—the blessed hope of our Lord’s soon return in His appearing. Our desire, for those of us who are living, is that the Lord would come back during our lifetime and that we could be prepared and ready to meet Him at the throne.
Oh, to be part of that man-child, to be raptured in the very beginning, to become that welcoming party of our Lord Jesus.
I also shared that, of course, many have already passed, and they are looking forward to that day, brothers and sisters, when they will rise and meet our Lord face to face.
The desire of all our hearts, including those living and those who have passed, is that when we meet Him, we might be able to hear Him say, “Enter into the joy of the Lord,” and be able to go to that wedding feast—that millennial thousand years of reigning and ruling with our Lord Jesus.
Not that we are anything, but that He will become everything. Everything will be a reflection in that day of our Lord and His authority and His government.
We need to be prepared. That was the second message: we need to be prepared.
Our being able to be raptured to the throne and hear those great words, “Enter into the joy of the Lord,” seems to have conditions, as you read the Scriptures. It says, “Watch and pray,” that you might not be taken unawares, and that the cares of life might keep you from Him.
Also, in the story of the ten virgins, speaking of those who are dead in Christ, it seemed that some had enough oil and some did not. The thought there is that we need to be full of His Spirit.
Full of His Spirit. The hindrance to being full is that we already have so much self there. In order to be filled, we also need to be emptied of this great self-life that seems to be such a hindrance to us really having a life with the Lord Jesus.
Thirdly, we talked about these Scriptures:
From Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth; unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
This thought of John directs our attention to the One we know: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Anointed One, the One who is the firstborn from the dead, the risen One, the victorious One, the One who shed His blood for your sins and my sins.
It reminds us of Him and how we need to keep, as we come every week, a fresh, living remembrance of Him in our hearts. That is what keeps us going, brothers and sisters.
It is so necessary to remember Him and be prepared. Also, it is so necessary to understand that it speaks of “grace be unto you, and peace.”
Grace is so important, because we find out, as we really have a life with the Lord, that we think of grace as just being a free gift given to us. In a sense it is, but grace is the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s grace—when He gave you God’s grace, He gave you Christ. That is why He is so gracious, because He gave us His best. It is the grace, Christ in you, that is able to prepare you for the Lord’s return.
It is only by the life of Christ in you that you can find yourself able to endure, able to respond to the Lord, and able to follow Him. It is His life in you.
It is a great discovery, brothers and sisters, in a Christian’s life when he finally realizes he cannot do it.
No matter how much he loves the Lord, how much he wants to, he just cannot do it in himself. But he discovers that there is One within: the Lord Jesus Christ. His life is there; He is there. Finally, we can rest in Him, and He can do it.
Then I talked about keeping our eyes on Him, as I have already said—remembering Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who died for us.
Well, that was leading into where we are headed, which is really this revelation of our Lord that we see in the book of Revelation: the revelation of the Lord of glory. But we are not quite there yet.
As I have been sharing, and as I considered it this week, I said, “Lord, there seems to be something that we need to do in the matter of preparation.”
So, as we begin, let us read some Scriptures out of Revelation. I am going to just kind of skip through it rather than read the whole thing.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave.
Important: the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
saying, I am Alpha and Omega.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
and in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last.
This is the book of Revelation. The whole Bible is a book of revelation, a revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. But when we come to this last book in the Bible, it even calls itself the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is entitled Revelation.
In this book, we find the summation of all the revelations of Jesus Christ down through the ages. You remember in the book of Ephesians, He says, “I will sum up all things in Christ. In the fullness of times, I will sum up all things in Christ.”
It is a summation, but it is also a continuation of the revelation of Jesus Christ. What a book. What a revelation we have.
Now I want to share on this revelation that John saw, and I feel so inadequate. I feel like, “Lord, I do not know if I have seen this One that John saw.”
I have seen the Lamb. I have seen You, Lord. I know You are with me. I know You are my Friend. I know You are my Shepherd. I know You are my Comforter.
But Lord, I have not quite seen You like John has. But may the Lord have mercy, because He gave John this revelation to share with us, that we too might see—see as John saw.
That is my prayer: that we would see as John was able to see. Brothers and sisters, it was just on my heart that, as we consider this thing, we really need to pray that the Lord would open our eyes to see Him.
I think it needs to be preceded by prayer. And, you know, revelation is so important. This is Revelation. It is the apocalypse.
You know what apocalypse means? It means an unveiling. It is the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, we have many veils in our lives, do we not? We find that out. But as we go through our life with the Lord, it seems like a veil is lifted here and a veil is lifted there.
As we go on in the Lord, praise the Lord, there are more and more veils taken away, and we are able to see Him a little bit clearer, a little bit more of our Lord Jesus Christ. But there is coming a day when there are not going to be any veils. What a day that is, brothers and sisters.
I just want to share because I want it in our hearts that we are really looking and praying that we might see Jesus, that we might see this One that John saw. That is the burden on my heart this morning.
How important revelation—unveiling—is in our lives, brothers and sisters.
Revelation, unveiling, is more than just enlightenment, more than just seeing a little more. Revelation not only enlightens us, but, brothers and sisters, it fundamentally alters us. It changes us. It captures us.
It becomes the motivation, the center, and the power of your life, if you see. This is not just revelation that we gain from knowledge; this is divine revelation that comes from God Himself.
I am reminded of Peter. You know, Peter had been with the Lord, watched His miracles, heard His teachings, and finally the Lord said, “Who do you say I am?”
Peter, oh, praise the Lord, was able to respond, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The Lord Jesus responded back to him and said, “Now, Peter, it is important that you understand this. This revelation did not just come from knowledge from man. It came from the Father. It came from God. He gave you that ability to see.”
That is the only way we have the ability to see: from the Lord Jesus Christ. So, brothers and sisters, it is divine revelation.
A lot of times we talk of having an epiphany in our lives, and we do sometimes. A lot of times there are periods of great stress—the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, some real event in our lives—and there is some kind of epiphany.
Brothers and sisters, this is not just an epiphany. This is revelation: a seeing that the Lord God Himself gives you.
Now, how much you have seen of Christ is not because of your diligence; it is because of God’s mercy in opening your eyes.
When He opens our eyes, we do have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to what we see. We cannot just rejoice and joy in what we have seen, which we should do, but it should cause a response in our hearts to Him.
So revelation is a discovery of Jesus Christ. It is a discovery of Christ, a revealing of Him that comes only from divine revelation.
The more I have considered this and the more I looked into it, it seems to me that a fresh revelation of our Lord seems to be the answer to all our problems.
We get into all kinds of situations and circumstances, and sometimes, through our intelligence and maybe experience, we can try to work our way out of them.
But, brothers and sisters, we are Christians. All of these circumstances, issues, and problems have a purpose. We have been looking at the school of Christ, and we are in it. He is serious about it.
In all these situations and circumstances, what the Lord wants us to do is to have a fresh, fresh revelation of Him—an unveiling, a little more. That is what all of these things are for: that we might see Him in all His glory.
All the new movements of God down through the ages have begun with a fresh revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, our Lord created this universe and everything, and we know the story of Satan being cast out in the realm of this earth, how darkness came upon it, and all the chaos. But the Lord came, and when He considered man and a place for man, He restored it.
When He finished, He said, “It is good.” Now, when God says it is good, it is good.
But we know the tragic story. God had to test Adam and Eve, and when He did, they failed. Satan was able to tempt them to disobey God, to become their own gods, lord of their own lives. That seems to be the key.
They failed, and it seems as if God’s great plan was ended.
Now, in Adam and Eve, when He created them, we remember that we get this little glimpse of God’s purpose when Eve was taken out of the side of Adam. We know that is a picture of the church coming out of the side of our Lord Jesus when He was wounded on Calvary’s cross.
Something that God had in His heart. Well, right away the enemy attacks, and right away, unfortunately, mankind fell, and it seemed as if God had lost.
But God never gives up. Oh, brothers and sisters, what was this fresh revelation?
God met Adam, and He met Eve, and He talked to them, and He gave them a revelation. He said that Satan would wound the heel of the seed of the woman, but He would wound Satan’s head.
A revelation of Who? Is it not Christ, the seed of the woman, who came and finally undid Satan and all his works at Calvary’s cross, in His resurrection and ascension?
It was an unveiling, and God began to move once again. Thank the Lord, He did have some of Adam’s descendants faithful to that vision, to what they had seen. We think of Abel and Enoch.
Then we come to Noah. The Lord had gotten so disgusted with man that He said, “There is only evil in their hearts in the whole world, and I am going to destroy them and this world.”
Brothers and sisters, that was a tragic, tragic period of history. It seemed as if that would be the end once again.
But God gives a revelation to Noah. He says, “Noah, build an ark.” Now, we know that ark is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You are saved from the world and saved from destruction because you are in the ark, because you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. A new unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We come to Abraham. God wanted a family, a nation, a testimony to His Son on this earth—the nation of Israel. He began with Abraham, but how did He begin?
In Acts 7:2—we do not have time to read it—it says, “The God of glory appeared to Abraham.” The God of glory appeared to Abraham. That is the beginning: fresh revelation.
What was it He called Abraham to? He said, “I want you to go to the promised land.” Well, we know, brothers and sisters, our promised land is Jesus Christ. All the fullness of God dwells there. All the riches dwell in this promised land of Jesus Christ.
A further unveiling. We know that our brother also received a revelation of that great city, the end product of God’s purpose—that great city which is a total reflection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He received an unveiling.
Moses. The people, remember the story of Joseph, had to go into Egypt to get food, and everything was fine until a Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph.
They began to be disturbed by the multitude of Jews, and they said, “We are going to just turn them into slaves.” And they did. For four hundred years, they were in slavery.
Again, this testimony that God was after seemed like it was going to just disappear in slavery.
Well, we know in Exodus 3:3-6 that Moses is called. He has already had to leave, and he is in the desert area. He sees that burning bush.
Now, Who is in that burning bush? It is the Lord. He speaks to Moses out of that burning bush. He sees the Lord. He is seeing.
The Lord tells him, “You go back. I am going to use you to deliver My people.”
Moses, we know, marched those people around for almost forty years in the desert, through all the problems, rebellions, lack of faith, and everything else. Our brother remained faithful. How did he endure?
He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.
That was Moses. Moses endured because he had seen the One who was invisible. Revelation.
Joshua, in Joshua 5:13-14. After Moses died, they still had not yet crossed into the promised land, and Joshua was given the charge of taking the people into the promised land.
The Lord gave him a word: “Be strong and of good courage.” I think it was at least three times that He told him that.
They went in, and as they were preparing and considering, they had to possess the land. It was full of enemies. How were they going to do this? They were just a people. They were not warriors. They had been slaves. They had come out of that whole background of slavery.
How were they going to do it? How were they going to possess this great land?
Joshua was there, and One appeared to him. They were getting ready to try to take Jericho. It says he lifted up his eyes, and he saw a man.
He said, “Are You for us or against us?” This Man said, “I have come as Captain of the host.”
Oh, revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ—the Captain of the host, the One who would see that they were able to overthrow all their enemies and possess the land. A new revelation.
Isaiah lived in a dark time during the period of the nation of Israel. They had declined from the Lord. They had fallen away tremendously. The Lord raised up this man with a prophetic ministry, as we know.
Brothers and sisters, how was he able to do it? What was the basis of his prophetic ministry? Did it just come from knowledge that he had? No.
In Isaiah 6:1, it says:
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
He saw the glorious One. That is why Isaiah could prevail and make it through.
Paul. Oh, brothers and sisters, Paul was opposed to the Lord in the beginning and opposed to the Lord’s people. We know that. He threw them in prison, and he was a part of Stephen’s martyrdom. He was there, agreeing.
But on the road to Damascus, a light shone—an unveiling of the Lord in glory.
Paul falls down on his face: “Lord, Who are You? Lord, what will You have me to do?” His life changed.
The basis of his ministry was that revelation of Christ on the Damascus road. Brothers and sisters, he endured such hardship. He endured things that most of us would falter under.
He was called to be the one who would bring the Lord Jesus to the Gentiles, and he was faithful. How was he so faithful? He was the builder of God’s house. I know the Lord is, but the Lord used him as a master builder. How?
It was this vision that he had of the Lord, brothers and sisters, that made the difference. Paul, thank the Lord, fulfilled his ministry. In the end, he was able to say, “The Lord has laid up a crown for me.”
Stephen, the martyr—the one Paul had agreed should be martyred, the first martyr that is recorded.
Brothers and sisters, how the Lord used Stephen. Everybody was hanging on to Judaism. They were not quite sure how to handle this Christ and what Christ had brought them into, and all the trappings of Judaism were still hanging on.
The Lord used Stephen to help break that bondage. It was his martyrdom. If you read it, it is a tremendous story.
Well, how was he able to do it? Acts 7:56:
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
That was his strength. That unveiling of the One in glory was his strength and his ability to go through.
I share these things before we get into seeing John’s vision of the King of glory. Brothers and sisters, how important it is that we ask the Lord, “Lord, open my eyes.”
“Lord, I have many veils. Lord, be merciful to me, that I too can see as John was able to see.”
Well, that does bring us to John once again. This is the end of the first century. The days of the glorious new birth of the church—oh, how much false doctrine had come in, divisions had come in, and great declension had come in even by the end of the first century.
John was the only possible apostle remaining who had been a disciple of our Lord and had seen Him through all these things. Now he is seeing the church in great declension.
John knew the situation. Jerusalem had been burned, the saints were scattered and being persecuted, and John himself had been exiled to this island because he stood for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
The enemy was trying to take it out. John was a major force that the Lord was using to try to bring restoration to the testimony of Jesus, and the enemy was trying his best to get John taken out. He had him exiled.
But the Lord is never defeated, brothers and sisters.
It was on John’s heart: How is the church going to make it through? How is the church going to be strengthened? How is the Lord’s testimony going to be recovered in the midst of all that is going on?
Well, in Revelation 1, we know how He does it. The Lord of glory appears to John—a fresh revelation, a revelation of the Lord of glory.
He sees Him walking in the midst of the seven churches. Brothers and sisters, He is the Head of the church. This is the vision that he saw.
Oh, how the church in those days needed to come back to the Head, to their Lord Jesus Christ. How they needed a fresh revelation of the Head of the church, with all His wisdom and all His power. They needed to know the Head.
This Head—he saw Him standing in the midst. He had not left them. He was still in their midst, and He was in their midst as their Head. How they needed to see the Head.
He saw Him, brothers and sisters. If you read this, He had all those priestly robes. He is the great High Priest. Hebrews speaks much of the great High Priest who has entered heaven, the heavenly sanctuary, with His own blood before the Father.
He is ministering to His church. Brothers and sisters, He is ministering.
He is looking, and He wants the light of the testimony to burn brightly. But it is greatly dimmed in all of these churches, to a certain extent and in varying degrees. There has been a dimming of the testimony.
He is the Priest. That was Aaron’s responsibility—one of his responsibilities in the Old Testament was to keep the lamp, the candlestick, burning brightly.
Here we see the Lord concerned about the light burning brightly. He is the great High Priest.
But He is also, brothers and sisters—John sees Him in a way that he has not quite seen Him before. He sees Him as the Judge.
He is judging. He is inspecting, not with the purpose of tearing down, but with the purpose of building up. That means some things had to be thrown down that were of man. But He is the Judge.
He is looking to see if the testimony is measuring up. It says in the Word of God that judgment begins in the house of God.
Now let us look at Ezekiel 40. There is a parallel here that I want to share that I think is important. Ezekiel 40:3-4:
And He brought me thither; and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall show thee.
A man appears before him. Brass: judgment. He has a measuring rod in his hand.
Brothers and sisters, if you read for the next three chapters, this One measures everything. He measures the outer court. He measures the inner court. He measures the holy place. He measures all the furnishings in the holy place. He measures the pillars. He measures the ark.
There is nothing in this heavenly temple that God is revealing through Ezekiel that this Man with the measuring rod does not measure. He checks it out. Is it in conformance with God’s specifications? Does it measure up? Does it meet the standard—God’s standard?
Now, Who is this One that Ezekiel saw? It is Christ. He has come with a measuring rod in His hand, and He is a Judge. He is judging everything, inspecting everything, and seeing what meets God’s standard.
If there is something there that does not meet His standard, it has to be removed and dealt with. He is in the temple of God, the heavenly temple, and He is checking it all out. Does it measure up to the standard?
Now remember when our Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem, at the temple, and the disciples looked at our Lord and said, “Lord, look at this glorious temple that we have. It is marvelous. There is nothing like it on this earth.”
The Lord looked at it and said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Now, brothers and sisters, we know that the Lord was talking about His soon death, burial, and resurrection. What He was saying was, “I am God’s temple. I am God’s temple on this earth. I am God’s house on this earth. I am the testimony of God on this earth. I am the body of God—the manifestation of God.”
Brothers and sisters, that brings us back to the church, the body of Jesus Christ. We know that our Lord was crucified, and we know that at Pentecost they received a spiritual body: the church, the temple of God.
That is why it is so important that we have this revelation of Who He is. He is Head of the body. We need to be built together—a temple.
Brothers and sisters, what is the pattern for the church? I think we have heard this before. It is the same pattern that God gave for the tabernacle, the same pattern God gave for Solomon’s temple. It is Christ—God’s temple, Christ.
Everything is judged in reference to Who Jesus Christ is. That is why we need to see Him. He is God’s reality on this earth.
Everything, and ultimately including our lives, must come in conformance to God’s standard: Christ. Nothing is allowed that is not of Christ. It is burned up.
That is why God says, “I am a consuming fire.” Anything that is not of Christ will be burned.
In Ezekiel 43, finally, after all the measuring is done, the God of glory fills that house. The God of glory filled our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then God says something to Ezekiel. He says, “Look, if My people will repent, show them this house.” Now, that house, that heavenly house, was the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, “If My people will repent, show them this house.” In other words, they need revelation. Ezekiel, if they just have revelation, they can be recovered.
I put a star by this: revelation is God’s way of recovery. An unveiling of Jesus Christ is God’s way of recovery. Seeing Christ is the way of recovery, brothers and sisters.
We just went through the whole history of the Old Testament. Everything was recovered by a fresh unveiling of Jesus Christ.
At the end of the first century, as I mentioned, there was great declension and falling away. False doctrines, the ways of the world, and man’s ways were all entering into the church.
God, through John, begins to recover His testimony in His church. How does He do it? By giving a fresh revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This revelation is a revelation of the King, the Lord of glory, the great High Priest, the Head of the church. He is not presented here as the Lamb, but as the Lord of glory.
We find that He is the Christ. He has the measuring rod in His hand, and John sees Him as the Judge, judging His church, judging His own.
Just like Ezekiel, He has that measuring rod, measuring everything in these seven churches, checking everything out. Does it meet God’s standard?
In other words, does this testimony reflect Me? Is the reality of Me there? That is what He is after. Nothing else will do. Anything that does not meet His standard is done away with.
So it requires a fresh revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What were the consequences, brothers and sisters, for lack of response to this vision? They are pretty dire.
At least in Ephesus, He says, “Look, you need to repent and really change. You need to be ready, and you are not.” There needs to be repentance in your heart, or else the testimony will be extinguished.
But this revelation was not given to destroy, but to recover. Yet all that was not of Christ would have to go.
Oh, it is a serious matter. You know, sometimes we think we have this personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, and we have seen Him as our Savior. We have seen Him as our Shepherd, our Friend.
Oh, brothers and sisters, we have seen this High Priest, sharing all the power and work of Calvary’s cross with us, that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
But I want to say this morning, as I have read and meditated on this more, we really do need to see the King. We need to see this One that John saw.
He is the great High Priest, the Head of the body, purifying His church, purifying His bride.
The Lord is after much more than trying to fill heaven with saved people.
He is not trying to build a museum up there and say, “Well, look at this one. How marvelous they look. How well they came along in their spiritual life and growth. They are shining quite well. This other one has a few dull spots, but I put him here because he is one of Mine.”
No, He is not after a museum. He is after a bride.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord looks at His bride, He sees a bride. He still knows you as an individual, but what He sees is that bride.
That is why it is so important that we be built together and be united in love, and, brothers and sisters, be built in accordance with this vision of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, John knew the Lord. There is no doubt about it. Probably—maybe, I will just say this, I will use the word maybe—but I really think he may have known Him best of all the disciples.
He was the one who was actually at Calvary, the only one of the disciples. He knew He was buried. He saw the resurrected Lord Jesus. He saw the Lord ascend from the Mount of Olives.
He had such a close relationship with the Lord while He was on earth. It says he leaned on His breast. He really loved the Lord. There was great affection for the Lord Jesus, it seems like more than most of the other apostles.
Look at his Gospel, brothers and sisters. Is not his Gospel a little bit different than the others? What is it that we find in the Gospel? It is an unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He saw Christ as the Light of the world. He saw Christ as the Bread of life. He saw Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He saw Christ as the Door to life. He saw Christ as the Resurrection. He saw Christ as the Good Shepherd.
Oh, brothers and sisters, Christ was unveiled to this brother, and in his Gospel he unveils Christ to us. This is the One with whom John was most familiar. He was greatly experienced.
Look at his epistles. Now he is dealing with a lot of issues in the epistles, but his answer was Christ. He got right down to the very basic characteristic of Christ and the Godhead: love.
You know how the Scripture describes God. We can say there are many ways, many things, but the simple words are: God is love.
Everything seems to flow out of that. John saw that. He saw Him, and he shares this revelation with us. Thank God, we can have those veils ripped away as John had. How much he experienced in the Lord, and he shared it with us.
Now, late in life, he receives this further revelation.
In this revelation that we have just read, we do not find John leaning on the Lord’s breast. No, we find him on his face.
When he sees this One, he falls down on his face. He cannot bear the sight. It is the Lord of glory—the risen Lord, the reigning Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
This glory is so strong that he just cannot bear to even look, and he falls on his face. He is totally undone in the presence of this One.
He has seen the Lord in a way that he has not seen Him quite before. He knew He was reigning on the throne; Pentecost was evidence of that. But now he sees this One who was reigning on the throne.
So strong was the presence of the Lord that it says he fell on his face as if he was dead. In other words, his breath was taken. It was such an awesome sight.
Oh, brothers and sisters, I cannot imagine. John was surely a very righteous brother in the Lord, loved the Lord, knew the Lord; but his righteousness was as filthy rags when he fell down.
Oh, when he saw the righteous One. He had never seen the King of glory, the Judge of everything.
God gives this revelation, brothers and sisters, in order that He might recover His testimony. God is giving this revelation that He might recover His testimony.
You and I know the Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is and has been our provision all our life.
The reality of the crucified Lord has affected our lives deeply, because we find that we have been crucified with Him. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus has had a great effect on us because we have found that we have been raised.
His ascension: we have been ascended. How much of that is real varies.
Brothers and sisters, it is an unveiling of Christ that makes the difference, and we have experienced Him in these ways. But do we truly know the King of glory, the Judge, the One with the measuring line in His hand?
Brothers and sisters, if we see what John saw, it will undo us.
You know, Paul was blinded for three days. Sometimes this revelation is in such power and awe, just like it occurred to John and Paul. Other times it seems like revelation comes a little here and a little there.
Then there is a day when finally the veil is taken away, and we say, “Oh, now I see what God has been doing. I see what He is after.” It is an unveiling of Christ.
The last time that I shared, I ended by saying this vision of the Lord Jesus Christ is a key to the whole book of Revelation.
The reason it is, is because it is a picture of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, the One in glory who is going to consummate this age, and He shows us what He is going to do.
There are further revelations of our Lord throughout this book, but it begins with this One, the King of glory, looking to recover His testimony.
So my heart is, as we continue to look at this—and next time I would like to share on the actual vision that John saw—that we would pray in the meantime.
Not just because I am sharing; you know better than that. But we really need to pray, “Lord, I need my eyes opened. I need to see You, Lord.”
However You choose to reveal Yourself to me, it might not be as dramatic as John’s, but Lord, I do need to see You. That should be the cry of our heart: “I want to see Jesus.”
If that is in our hearts, then as we look into this revelation that John received, it might become revelation to us. We might see our Lord in a new way.
You know, a lot of people have studied this book. It seems to me there has been a whole lot of confusion.
I do not understand everything in this book. I am probably the least brother who should be sharing on it. But I tell you this: the Lord gave this book to recover His testimony.
It is not intelligence that He is looking for. It is a heart—a heart to see Him. That is why He presented Himself.
I believe if we can approach this book with a heart to see Him, He will open it to us.
Many are trying to figure out all the prophetic events. Some may have come to the right conclusions; I do not know. I certainly have not been a scholar in that area.
But I tell you one thing: I believe God has given this book to us that we might see Jesus. If we will read it and look to Him, He will reveal Himself to us. That is the main purpose.
If we just study it to learn all the events and try to figure it all out, in the end it will just be knowledge. Brothers and sisters, when He appears, it will just condemn us instead of getting us ready for His coming.
That is our heart: that we might see Him, that we might be ready for His coming.
Lord, we just come to You this day. Oh, Lord Jesus, how we thank You that You so desire to reveal Yourself to us. You have given us this whole book.
Oh, Lord Jesus, not only that, but You have given us the Holy Spirit to show it to us, to make it real to us.
Lord, we can learn many things. We can become scholars, but what value is it if we do not see Thee?
Lord, we do pray that in these coming days, until You come, more and more veils will be lifted from our hearts, and that we will be able to see this One that John saw.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.