Revelation, Part 1

All right, now listen folks, let me just tell you one or two wee simple things before we start. Don't be afraid of the book of Revelation. You know, people don't read it.

I talked to a dear brother here just recently and he says, I haven't read the book of Revelation for a long time. Well, there's a blessing pronounced on the one that reads it and hears it and keeps it. So we're delighted to see you.

We're going to take this in segments and I'm going to give the overview and if we don't agree, well, we'll agree to disagree, right? And I'll be happy at the end of each session and the will of God to listen to the way you have to see it and enjoy it and so on. But we're going to give the overview so that people have an idea of what life is all about in the book of Revelation. Now, I'm just going to deal in view of the Lord's Supper with this particular part of the chart here.

See where we're here. Here's the cross. Here's the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus.

And the coming down of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And this afternoon, we're going to deal with this part of the chart. Now, maybe before we read, I'll point out to you that the book of Revelation is full of threes and sevens.

And we are going to major this morning on some of the threes in chapter one. It's absolutely saturated with them, as you'll see in a minute or two. So you see where it says here, chapter one, the things which thou hast seen.

Now, that's John being told to write chapter one. See, when it comes here to chapter two and three, the things which are. That's to do with the seven churches in Asia Minor.

And then of course, as the chart shows a little further up here, you see this from, from see where it says here, the things which shall be after these things that's after the rapture of the church. Now, let me, I don't want to get into this until this afternoon, but you see here, if you're a young believer here, I'm amazed at how many people can't see that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is in two stages, two aspects, and the chart is quick on it. See, here it is.

There's the rapture of the church and seven years plus right across to where I'm pointing now, he comes out here and the second aspect of the second coming, and he comes with the saints to reign as we'll see. I'm totally amazed. I know you folk here are more intelligent than I am.

When, please listen to what the Bible has to teach on these matters. Now I'm just going to read quickly revelation chapter one, and maybe I should say that this chart is Dr. Harry Ironsides, an outstanding teacher of the word of God. And I've been around for a while, as you all know, and I haven't seen any better chart from anybody.

And you mightn't agree with everything, but in the main, he's very, very clear in his book and on this chart based on the Bible. So that's what it is there. See the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That word is the apocalypse. That means the unveiling, as we'll see. Now, if you have your Bible open, please, I'll go down some of these things with you.

And we're going to major on threes. So revelation, please. Chapter one, verse number one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gives to him.

Now, the hymn is Christ to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and he signified it by his angel. The word is messenger onto his servant, John, who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.

Now, here's a very simple three verse three. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him, which is, which was and which is to come.

Here's three again from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth. Three statements again on to him that loved us and washed us from our sins and his own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and his father. Three again to him, the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. See verse seven, behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. They also which pierced him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

There's three again, as we'll see. Even so, amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which is, which was and which is to come, the almighty.

I, John, who am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God, for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Now let me point out to you. Here's the spirit saying on the Lord's day, it's not the day of the Lord, the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last and what those see is right in a book and send it onto the seven churches, which are in Asia on the Ephesus and onto Smyrna, onto Pergamos, onto Thyatira, onto Sardis, onto Philadelphia, onto Laodicea.

I turned to see the voice that speak to me and being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands is the better word. Mr. Newbery points that out. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like onto the son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle, his head, his hairs were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like onto fine brass as it were, as if they burned in a furnace.

And his voice has the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand, seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Here's the response.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me, fear not. I am the first and the last.

I am he that liveth. And again, Mr. Newbery and became dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore.

Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. Here's where we get what we've talked about.

Verse 19. Here's the three for the book, right? The things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars, which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches and the seven golden lampstands, which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Now, there's the first chapter read to you this morning. Now, I'll be as brief as possible. And I want to cover a summary of chapter one.

Let me just quickly give you the setting. John, the apostle is on the island called Patmos. He's there because of the persecution of the Roman authorities.

And he's the last of the surviving apostles of the lamb. He's a man in his nineties. And he's sitting on the island on the west side of the Mediterranean sea.

And he's looking eastward to the mainland of Israel. He's there on the lordly day, the first day of the week. And that's what that word means.

You look it up till you see. It's not the day of the Lord. We will be talking about the day of the Lord later.

But this is the lordly day, the first day of the week, just the same way as we are here today. It's the same word, for example, as the Lord's supplication. First Corinthians chapter 11.

That's the lordly day and that's the lordly supper. It's the same idea as first Corinthians chapter 16. You see on the first day of the week, they were to lay by and store as the Lord had prospered and so on.

Same idea. Now, if that is the case, he gets an unfolding of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that he never had before. And so I want to show you that in chapter one of the book of Revelation, the first has to do with the Lord Jesus.

And then involved in that is the prophetic program that God has for the ages. And I might say that it's very important for all of us to know exactly where we are in the big picture. Things in our day and generation are amazing.

Whoever would have thought that we have come so far down on the financial side of things as we are in the global picture this morning. Now, we'll talk about that a little later, but that's to think what we're talking about. So it's important that we understand where we're at.

And it's important that we focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and give him the preeminent place. Now, if you're a young believer here, we're delighted to see you and our older ones as well. You know, there's a very simple way of looking at Revelation chapter one.

Now, I know that it's not consecutive in the verses, but the order of the content is very obvious. Number one, we want to talk about the Christ. That's the first thought.

Number two, we'll look at the churches and this afternoon we'll develop that further. And then the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we want to focus this morning on the threes that surround the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what we want to do. And here's where we can get material for worship as we move as a holy priesthood on the first day of every week. I've already pointed out to you, this revelation, this vision was given to John on one day, the first day of the week.

And to be very simple, it's divided into three parts. Now, I'm going to repeat myself several times because people will eventually get it. I have already told you that you're more intelligent than I am.

We're at Manchester conference, for example, and this beloved brother, if I told you his name, you know him. And he says to me, Stan, there's one thing I like about you. I said, what's that? He says, you repeat what you preach.

And he says, it gets through my thick head. Now that's him talking. So there's value in repeating.

Things which thou hast seen, chapter one. Things which are, chapter two and three. Things which shall be after these things, chapter four through chapter 22 of the book of Revelation.

Now, just keep your Bible open and I'll point some of these things out to you. Obviously, we can't go into every verse and every statement, but let me give you the overview here. Let us talk first of all about the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what we have come to exalt today, Him. First of all, His person. That's verses one and two and five to eight.

That's the content of those verses. Then in verse number three, there's His promise. And it has three parts as we'll see.

And then in verse number four is the purpose of writing this great revelation. Did you get that now? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Christ, His person, His promise, and the purpose for writing. Now, let me tell you a few simple things about His person.

Pretty obvious, dear saints of God. We can't tell you at all in a few minutes, but just keep your Bible open and I'll show you. See, if you're looking at verse number five, His person.

First of all, His character. Verse number five, here's your three, the faithful witness. That's the prophet.

The first begotten from the dead. You see here, He's moving as a priest, because after resurrection and ascension, it's His priesthood, as we have seen here in the chart. And then the third statement, the prince of the kings of the earth.

That's His kingship. So right away, great are the opposites. He bears and brightest character appears, exalted on the throne, but on earth, prophet, priest, and king.

Believers, hymn book number 226 is based right on what I've told you. Now, here's another one. See, verse seven, here's His coming.

Every eye will see Him. They also that pierced Him, and all kindreds shall wail because of Him. See, that's His coming.

Now, dear saints of God, let me point out to you again, that that has to do with this point here, at the end of the great tribulation, when He comes down to earth. And more about that as we move on. Now, He has communications for John.

And you see in verse number eight, and one of them's on the chart here, alpha and omega, see it? First letter of the Greek alphabet, omega, the last letter of the alphabet. Now, there's several ways you can think about it. You see, alpha and omega, beginning and ending.

The one which was, which is, and which is to come. And the chapter shows the first and the last. All of those things have different thoughts connected with them.

For example, the alpha and the omega, that speaks of creation. And somebody says, how ever did you get that out of it? Well, one day, God allowed men somewhere in the Grecian culture to create an alphabet. And it's just an illustration of the creation that our God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit has made.

Let me just quote you a simple verse. See John's gospel, chapter one, verse 10. He was in the world, that's the Lord Jesus.

All things were made by Him. And there was nothing made that apart from Him. All things were made by Him.

He was in the world. The world knew Him not, yet He made all things. It's amazing.

See the beginning and the ending? That has to do with redemption. You should trace that out through the Bible and you'll find out that there was a moment when the ransom price was paid for our redemption and so on. And of course, the first and the last has to do with His position, deity, Godhood.

That's the greatness of the person of Christ. Now, all kinds of other things could be said. Now, just watch now as we move.

Remember what I told you? The Christ, three things about Him. One, His person, His promise on the purpose for writing. You see His promise.

Now look at verse number three, for example. He says, there's a blessing pronounced on the person that will read the book. The ones that will hear the book and the ones that will keep the sayings written in the book . So for a simple reading, here's a verse to tell me I will get blessed if I read the word, if I hear it, and if I keep it.

Now, let me just expand on that for a moment. Do you see reading the book? That's eye gate. That's why we have this chart.

Eye gate, the experts tell us, is the very medium that God has chosen to allow 75%. Did you get that? 75% of all information that comes into the brain comes through eye gate. That's why we have a chart.

People talk about the book of Revelation without a chart. They're lost. But you have somebody to look at here and you know exactly where we're focusing in on.

And then of course, there's ear gate, what we hear. And that with the other senses that we have, five and every individual, all things being considered equal, 25% of information is brought into the brain. Do you see how these experts today in the electronic world are working at eye gate? Do you see this personal computer, for example, it's an absolute masterpiece.

God has allowed men to seek out many inventions. I want to tell you that it has revolutionized our world. My own parents, they're home in heaven years ago, they never had a computer.

My dad wouldn't have even known how to switch it on. You think of what we have today, absolutely staggering. Now there's a positive side in it, but there's a negative side in it.

And what you see, you never forget. And then of course, keeping it, it's one thing to see it and to hear it and to bring it on board, but then to keep it, I call that heart gate. My son, give me thine heart.

Keep thine heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. So we have a big responsibility of reading the Bible, listening to it, to bring it on board. That's what the Lord said in the upper room.

You remember a new commandment. I leave with you. He's going to Calvary.

If you love me, keep my commandments. Do you love the Lord Jesus? Do I? By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. Indeed, if you have loved one for another.

Now we're all different personalities, understand that. And I have to admit that some are easier loved than others. But don't forget, we're all indwelt by the spirit of God.

And if we have a difference, we sit down and talk about it. Now in the mercy of God, to give you an example, we're married almost 50 years. In a few months time, if the Lord doesn't come and we're spared, we'll be 50 years married.

And those of you in the audience that are married, I want to tell you something. You won't always agree with your spouse. Well, if you do, you're not human.

And if we have had a difference, we sit down and talk about it. I want to tell you that's exactly true in the assembly. Have we got a problem? Whatever it is, we sit down and talk about it and resolve it based on the Holy Bible.

We've got tremendous responsibilities. This is John. Now, listen to this.

He says in verse number four, the purpose for writing. Why is he writing anyways? Well, here's the order. I read it to you.

It's in verse number one. God, the father conveys the information to the son, the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus conveys it to a messenger who in turn conveys it to John, the apostle, who in turn conveys it to the seven churches in Asia minor.

So here we are this morning. The God of heaven wants to convey to us a message, and it's about his beloved son. You know, he made an eternal statement four times in the Bible as the father addresses the son.

Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. And that word begotten has nothing to do with birth.

You look it up till you see. It has to do with the position of divine persons in the Godhead. It's an amazing thing.

Now, I'd love to expand on that, but I can't. I've just been pondering that recently. Imagine the God of heaven saying to his son, thou art my son.

Oh, dear brethren, he ever was the eternal son. How do you know? The father sent the son to be the savior of the world. He became the savior at Bethlehem.

So he was the son before he came. You see, the son was given, the child was born. Oh, the accuracy of the Holy Bible.

Now, let me talk a little more about the Lord Jesus here. And again, I'll summarize it. You see, in verses 48, this Lord Jesus Christ that was revealed close to John, John knew.

John lay in his bosom. He was likely absolutely enthralled, overwhelmed with the awe of his majesty. And he fell at his feet as dead.

And the Lord Jesus had a word for him. And so in these verses, let me just bring a simple thought out. The persons of the Godhead.

Now, look at your Bible, please. See what it says in these verses. He addresses the father, verse number eight.

Him which is, which was, and which is to come. Verse four, that is the eternal God. Now, the same thing is said about Christ later down the chapter.

Colossians one, Hebrews one, John's gospel chapter one, Philippians chapter two, and on and on and on it goes. To think of the greatness of the mighty God of eternity, the father. Do you see, the next one speaks about the spirit and the number here of completion.

The fullness of the spirit he's talking about. And by the way, whatever we think of three in the Bible, and we think of three in the book of Revelation, we think of completion. How do you know? Death, burial, and resurrection.

You can't go further than that. When we think of seven, we think of perfection. The Bible's full of sevens.

You know, there are 54 sevens in the book of Revelation. It's pretty obvious we won't be dealing with them all, but we're going to deal with some of them. And when the bottom line of life is drawn, perfection is seven in heaven.

Now, more about that later. See the sun? I like this one. It says here in this introduction, you see, Christ is presented in a threefold way.

He's the faithful witness. That's the prophet. He's the first begotten from the dead.

And finally, it's priesthood. And then, he's the highest of those raised from the dead, became the first fruits of them that slept and all the other verses. And then, of course, you see, he's the prince of the kings of the earth.

Psalm 2, right away. That's one of the places where he says, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. He's king of kings and Lord of lords.

Almighty God he is, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, this is the one that loved us. And washed us, the idea has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests.

And we will reign over the earth as we'll see. Now, here's another thing. I'll just touch on it.

You see, in verses 9 to 11, this is the Christ that John heard, the Christ that John knew, the Christ that John heard. John heard the voice of Christ as a trumpet. Oh, that's a tremendous light of ministry in the Bible.

Trumpets are important. You see, as we'll see in Revelation chapter 4, verse 1, the trumpet calls John up to heaven. It's a picture of the rapture.

Chapter 8 and verse 2, Trumpets signal the wrath of God that will be poured out on the world. We're going to be talking about that one of the nights to come. You see, it's an awful thing.

See that here, there they are. The trumpets, the alarm. But then it will be 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. The trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

That's here. And we'll get at that in a night or two in the will of God. I'll just say this as I pass by.

Some of our dear friends tell us there are three sounds at the rapture. There's only one sound. That's the shout.

And the next two statements are descriptive of that. You see, voice of archangel, authority. Trump of God, alarm.

And as filings to a magnet in an instant of time will rise and be in the father's house. See the Christ that John saw. Let me go over this before the time's up.

Verses 12 through 20 is the glorified Christ. Don't forget, brethren, there was a day at Calvary before the darkness fell on that scene where John was close enough to the Savior to hear his voice and direction about Mary. And if he was close enough to hear him, he was close enough to see him.

The physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Dear brethren, the sacred ground. There was a man telling us here just a few days ago that when the Lord Jesus hung on the cross, he didn't have the crown of thorns.

I tried to tell the beloved brother as nicely as I could. Brother, listen. When he was in Gapatha, he was crowned with thorns, with a cruel soldiers.

And there's no record that it was ever taken off until he was taken down from the tree. That's the one that John saw. Oh, it's suffering first and glory is next.

Listen to it. I'll just go down it quickly. See, his garments are those of a king priest.

How he was clothed, and more about that in the afternoon. His white hair speaks of his endlessness. The word we use is his eternality.

He never had a beginning and he will never have an end. His eyes, the all-seeing eyes, the piercing eyes of the Lord Jesus. He sees all that's going on as he moves around the golden lampstands, and he sees us today.

You see his feet, feet of brass, speaks of judgment. And the Bible, as you all know, the brazen altar was the place where sin was judged. You remember in the courtyard of the tabernacle long ago, his voice.

Oh, to think of his voice. The sound of many waters suggests the power of his word. Last Lord's Day night at the conference at Manchester, we preached on the voice of the Son of God in the gospel.

Let me quote you one verse to prove it. John's gospel chapter 5 verse 28, marvel not the hour is coming when all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth. Powerful voice, the sound of many waters.

John is absolutely enthralled as he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder he falls at his feet. You know what the Lord told him? Three simple things.

He says, John, I am he that liveth, present continuous tense, number one. Number two, I became dead. You see, he has power to lay down his life and he has power to take it again.

Fantastic. And I'm alive forevermore. Many a time I wonder how John felt.

This is the one that man scorned. This is the one that man hung on its cross. But God has given him the highest place.

Almighty God, we bow the knee and own all fullness dwells in thee. What do you think of the Lord Jesus on the first day of another week? Now, the seven churches will touch in the afternoon, so I'll have to leave that for the present. What I want to talk about is coming.

Got your Bible open, verse number seven, and I'll tell you a little about this. Now, let me repeat. I have met scores of believers that are more devoted to the Lord and their Christian life than I would be.

I'd give them that. But you know what? They have never seen the two aspects of the second coming of Christ. They believe that if the Lord comes today, it's the end of the world and it's eternity.

Now, that's not right. There's seven years plus of tribulation and a thousand years of the millennium reign of Christ as this, here we are at the end here. See, when he comes at the end of the tribulation and then the great millennium reign, a thousand years and so on.

But they can't understand that between these two yellow seas right here, at least seven years. Now, John gets a look at the second aspect of his second coming and people say, well, how do you prove that? Well, I'll tell you. When he came the first time, he came to Bethlehem Ephrata, seven ushered him in.

The great big world didn't know that he was born in Bethlehem Ephrata. The wise men came, they saw a star in the east and so on. They didn't even know that he was born until after it happened.

See, when he came to Calvary, every known Jew from every foreign country in the Middle East at that time were all gathered for the Passover at Jerusalem. There were likely hundreds at Calvary. So the first aspect of the first coming was private.

The second aspect of the first coming was public by the same token. When he comes the second time, as the church shows the rapture, first Thessalonians four in an instant will be gone. The world won't know until it's all over.

But you see this verse, just look at verse seven before we stop. It's different. It's public.

Here it is. It says in verse number seven, the coming is described in three statements. Every eye shall see him.

Every eye shall see him at the end of the tribulation. That's a visual. Can you explain that? I can't, but I accept it.

Whenever he comes on his feet at Mount Olivet, as Zechariah 14 verse one tells us, that will be day somewhere in the world and it will be night somewhere else. But in some way unknown to us, every eye will see him visual. See the next statement.

They also that pierced him. That's national. Who's that? The nation of Israel.

This is when Isaiah 53 will come into focus and the nation, the remnant of the nation, as the chart shows here, you see it, a remnant saved. You know what they'll say? That was our Messiah. We crucified him.

He was wounded for us and he was bruised for us and we accept him. These are the people that will go in here to the millennium reign of Christ. Fantastic.

God has purposes for the nation of Israel. And let me just say this in passing. There are literally millions in the Middle East today and they want to wipe the nation of Israel off the map.

I heard there the other day on the news, by interpretation, the president of Iran. And they said, he said that the nation of Israel must be annihilated from the face of the earth. I want to tell you something.

The brotherhood will be annihilated. That's the Muslim world, 2.2 billion percent. And yet the nation of Israel has a great future.

They pierced the Lord Jesus, but he's their Messiah, has a tremendous future as we'll see. See the next one? All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. That's universal.

If you got the trend there, visual, national, universal. Fantastic. And so there are seven direct references to the coming again of the Lord Jesus in the book of Revelation.

This is number one. Number seven, the end of Revelation 22, verse 20. Surely I come quickly.

Even so come Lord Jesus. Dear brethren, just before we close, do we understand in some measure that we're living on the very eve, the tiptoe of us coming again to the air to call us waiting people home. I got to talk about myself here for a minute.

We're talking about you. Have you thought about the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ today? When I was a younger believer in the old country, every conference that we went to, somebody had a word on the Lord's coming. We don't hear it too often these days.

Lord help us to recognize the hope that very soon we'll leave the world and whatever little time we have left between this second and the second he arrives, may we use it for the glory of his blessed name and the furtherance of his work and in assembly life to do all we can to help the testimony and have priorities in life. We were saying there the other day, yesterday, in fact, at the supper table, so dear brother said to me, Stan, just to tell you what's on my heart here. He says, you know, I'm so busy, man.

I haven't time to read my Bible. And he says, you know what? I haven't even time to get to all the meetings. He says, you have no idea how busy I am.

And I said to him, brother, welcome to the club. Like I'm not just sitting sleeping all day. And I said, we, you and I need to learn priority.

And the Lord Jesus Christ says me first. God help us in a few minutes to give him the preeminent place. Think of the Christ.

Think of the churches. Think of the coming. And we'll develop this in the afternoon and the will of God as we move on.