Back to the Future, Part 2

This book, beloved, will give to the one who loves us and the one who released us from our sins by His blood, the one who made us into a kingdom and made us priests before God. This book will give to him the glory and the dominion that he deserves forever and ever. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. For four weeks now, we have been bringing you a collection of landmark sermons from John MacArthur's 53 years of pulpit ministry. We call this series the New Testament Beginning to End, and today you'll hear the compelling concluding message taken from Revelation chapter 1, titled Back to the Future. Now, the book of Revelation is difficult for many people, so difficult that lots of people abandon it altogether.

Perhaps you've neglected it yourself. Well, today, John's going to show you the incredible blessing that comes from studying Revelation and the future riches that await every believer. So, here with today's lesson is John MacArthur. And now we have that great privilege of going back to the future in our study of Revelation. Now, no book in the Bible reveals more of the glory of God or more of the splendor of Jesus Christ than this book. And though it is so singularly blessed, it is still misunderstood, misinterpreted, and neglected more than any other book, in the New Testament, surely.

To many, it is a closed book, it is a sealed book, and that is exactly what God wanted it not to be. Now to help us in our orientation in the book, I have tried to break this introductory section from verses 1 through 6 into several component parts. I'm not really struggling here to make a memorable homiletical outline, but just to sort of segment these things so that we can grasp them and the richness of them piece by piece. So, what are we learning in this wonderful opening section? One, the essential nature of the book, the central theme, the divine source, the specific recipients, and the prophetic character.

Let's look at a sixth point, all right? Let's call it the supernatural delivery, the supernatural delivery. We note then in verse 1, and this is a marvelous point, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show to His bondservants the things which must shortly take place, listen now, and He sent and communicated it by His angel. Here is its supernatural delivery. Now this has got to intensify my interest. My, this is very, very unusual. Do you know something? This is the only book in the whole New Testament that was delivered and transmitted by angels. This is wonderful. This sets this thing apart.

This is a very unusual situation. But the Lord has chosen to bring the message of this book down to us by means of angels. Now what other great bit of revelation was delivered by angels?

What was it? It was the law of Moses, wasn't it? Acts 7, 53, you have received the law as ordained by angels. And now we have this incredible book delivered by angels. In Revelation 22, 16, as it closes out, we read, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. Now this book is sent by an angel.

The word sent, apostelos, from which we get apostle, has the idea of a commissioned representative with authority on a mission. So there is angelic mission here. God turns loose angelic beings to bring this revelation of Jesus Christ to John, to His pen, and now to us.

He sent and communicated it by His angels. Angels appear in almost every chapter. Just listen to this, they're in chapter 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

They're all over the place, 67 times in this book. We're going to get closely acquainted with the angels. Then we meet number 7 in our little list, kind of breaking up this introduction, it's human agent. To whom do the angels bring the message to be written down? To whom do the angels give the vision? To whom do the angels give the revelation? It says, communicated by His angel to His bondservant, John. By the angel who belongs to Christ, to the bondservant who belongs to Christ, namely John. And John is absolutely overwhelmed.

He never stops being overwhelmed. Look at chapter 1 verse 9, I John, I John. It's almost like he says, can you believe this? I John am getting this stuff. It's almost like he can't say, and I have received. I, and he has to say, John. It's me getting this.

Unthinkable. In chapter 21, he's still kind of overwhelmed. He says, and I saw the holy city, as if to say, can you believe that? Chapter 22 verse 8, and I John am the one who heard and saw these things. Now tell me something about John's gospel. Do you remember something when you studied John's gospel? In the entire gospel, how many times does John refer to himself?

None. But he's a humble guy, but here, that's why he does refer to himself, because he's in shock that he's getting all this. Verse 2 tells us about him, who bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. I'll tell you one thing about John. When he was young and when he was old, he was a faithful witness. Do you remember when he wrote 1 John, how he started it? What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld, and our hands handled concerning the Word of life, and the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness.

He said, I'm writing it and I'm talking about it exactly the way I saw it and exactly the way I heard it and exactly the way it felt when I touched it. This is a true witness. You know what a witness is?

Somebody who saw something happen tells about it. It's what a witness is. I've been a witness. I saw attempted murder one time.

They took me to court. They said, you're a witness. Tell us what you saw, heard, and felt, and I did. That's what a witness is. And John was a faithful witness. He bore witness to the Word of God. He saw the Word of God coming to him through these visions brought by angels. And he bore witness, secondly, to the testimony from Jesus Christ.

Now we come to the personal impact of all of this. Number eight in our little list as we break this up, it's spiritual blessedness. It's spiritual blessedness.

This is so wonderful. Verse 3, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it. Blessed, blessed. If you listen to this being read and explained and you hear it with obedient ears and you heed it in your life, you're going to be blessed. That is the promise of God in this book. Look at the end of the book, chapter 22, verse 7, and I want to show you a similar promise. Verse 7, behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. At the beginning is the blessing, at the end is the blessing, both from the beginning to the end, the promise that we are blessed.

So what have we learned? The essential nature of the book, it is the revelation. The central theme, Jesus Christ. The divine source, God. The specific recipients, his bondservants, namely believers. The prophetic character, things which must shortly take place. Its supernatural delivery comes through angels.

Its human agent is John. Its spiritual blessedness is indicated to us there in verse 3, for those who hear and heed. And all of that is joined by a next point. It's compelling urgency.

It's compelling urgency. The end of verse 3, for the time is near. The time is near. The word time here, not kronos, that's clock time, calendar time. The word is kairos, that's epical time.

The word time is eras, epochs, seasons. The word near engus simply means the next great epoch of God's redemptive history is near. It's on the horizon.

It's imminent. Now you see, what the Holy Spirit is endeavoring to do is to force everybody in the church from the time this was written on to live in the light of the fact that this is the next event, and since we don't know when it's going to happen, we have to live as if it were going to happen in the immediate future. This is not a concept unfamiliar to Scripture. God can say it's near, and yet somebody's going to say, well, two thousand years have passed, does God really mean what He says?

Yes, if you understand that near means next. And you understand, secondly, that what might seem a long time to you is very brief to God, since with Him a day is as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. And that brings us to a tenth point. This is wonderful, still in the introduction. It's Trinitarian benediction. Frankly, this is so overwhelming that there needs to be some note of praise at the very beginning, and we're going to see that in a moment. But before the praise comes, we need to look at the benediction that comes in verses 4, 5, and 6. This takes this great truth of the coming of Christ and presses it to us again, as verse 3 did, with the idea of blessedness. Verse 4, John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, that's Asia Minor, modern Turkey, seven churches located there in the western half of Asia Minor, they're named in verse 11.

Do you see them there? Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Then there's the standard greeting to them, grace to you and peace, and here comes the unbelievable Trinitarian benediction. This is just God pouring out on us His love. Grace, 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, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom priest to His God and Father.

Stop right there. This is the Trinity, folks. This thing begins with an unbelievable benediction from the Trinity.

Benediction means blessing. Here comes grace and here comes peace from the whole Trinity to these seven churches and the true believers in them and all true believers. So this is a love letter, God sending you His blessing. The Holy Spirit is sending you His blessing. Jesus Christ is sending you His blessing.

All three members of the Trinity are sending you grace and sending you peace. It's...listen...it's their wish for you that you have grace. It's God's wish. It's the Spirit's wish. It's the Son's wish. It's their wish that you have peace. It's God's wish. It's the Spirit's wish. It's the Son's wish. I'll promise you one thing.

If they wish it, you'll get it, the blessedness of this. First, God is identified from Him who is and who was and who is to come. That's the eternal God, the source of all blessing, all grace and all peace.

And I cannot resist showing you something very fascinating. It sees God in time dimensions, though He is timeless because that's the only way we can understand Him. He is eternal. He was.

He is. He is to come looking at the past, the present, and the future. This title is used many times. Look at verse 8. Again, God is described as the One who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Then John moves to the second member of the Trinity, verse 4. And from the seven spirits who are before His throne, you say, wait a minute, I thought there was one Holy Spirit. There is...there is. You say, well, why is it the seven spirits here?

Well, several possible answers to that. One is that seven is the number of fullness, and so He is identifying the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Another is that back in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 2, there is a wonderful statement about the Holy Spirit there. It says, And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. There you have seven aspects of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of strength, the Spirit strength, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

That's sevenfold ministry of the Spirit. It is also possible that Zechariah could be in the mind of God as this greeting is sent. Zechariah chapter 4, and I won't take time to go into it in detail, but it is possible that the idea of the seven spirits goes back to Zechariah chapter 4, verses 1 to 10. In verse 2, what do you see? And I said, I see and behold a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps that are on the top of it.

Now here is the seven lamps. In verse 10, again, the similar idea, the seven are the eyes of the Lord which range to and fro throughout the earth. You say, well now, could this be a reference to the Holy Spirit?

Yes, it could be because right in the middle of this passage is this statement, not by might nor by power, but what? By my Spirit, verse 6. And then John moves into the remaining member of the Trinity. Grace and peace from Jesus Christ, verse 5. The faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

What a glorious description, absolutely thrilling. John says he is the faithful witness, the faithful witness. The second title he gives him is the firstborn of the dead.

What does he mean? Firstborn doesn't mean he's the first one ever to be raised from the dead, no, others had been raised in time before him. But it means of all those who were ever raised, he is the preeminent one.

Firstborn, prototokos, means preeminent, that of all who've ever been raised before or after, he is the preeminent one. Then he gives him a third title, the ruler of the kings of the earth. He will make him the ruler of the kings of the earth. In fact, in Revelation 19, 16, he will be king of kings and lord of lords.

And what a king he is, oh my. Daniel 4, 37, calls him the king of heaven. Matthew 2, 2, the king of the Jews. John 1, 49, the king of Israel. Timothy 1, 17, the king of ages, Psalm 24, 7, the king of glory, Revelation 15, 3, the king of the saints, and finally the king of kings.

Now look at those three. Faithful witness speaks of his past to what God has to say in the past, he gives faithful witness. Resurrected lord, that is the prototokos, the chief of all who've ever been raised is his present role and ruler of the kings of the earth is future. He witnesses faithfully to the truth of God and so his witness is true. He presently in resurrection glory is the chief of all who've ever been raised and therefore sits at the right hand of the Father and someday in the future will be the ruler of all the kings of the earth. It is also true that he will become that ruler because he is the chief of all who've ever been raised and he will become that ruler because he has been a faithful witness. This is remarkable for in this wonderful letter, the Trinity sends us a benediction and that leads us to a last perception.

It's exalted doxology. John can't contain himself. He just can't. I mean, he's only into this thing six verses and he can't contain himself. And how does he wrap up verse 6? To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

Why does he say that? Because Jesus Christ, look at it, is the one who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood and he has made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father and thus to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever, amen. This is an exalted hymn of praise. It is unto him who loves us, present tense please, present tense, abiding love. Paul said nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. God's love is not a past experience, it is a present reality and his love for us at this present moment is in as full a force as it was when Jesus died on Calvary. He loved us when we hated him and he keeps on loving us now that we belong to him.

He loves us. And in the past, at the cross, released us from our sins by his blood. Blood there, a term referring to his entire atoning work. When you see the reference to the blood of Christ in Scripture, it is a reference to his full atonement. Blood signifies death and in the case of Christ, sacrificial substitutionary death for sin. Through his death, his atoning work on the cross, he released us from our sins.

My, what a great truth. He loves us so much that he made us into a community of saints forever bound together in the confines of a kingdom over which he rules and we enjoy his loving rule and his loving sovereign almighty protection. He has given us, as it were, the privilege of being ruled by the King of Kings and reigning with him.

Furthermore, says John, he made us priests to his God and Father. Having been released from our sins, we have become a kingdom, a part of a kingdom. We've entered by faith, we're under his rule. We have also become priests.

What does that mean? We now have direct access to God, do we not? A priest is one who had the right to enter God's presence. We now are all priests. That's why we say we believe in the priesthood of believers. We all enter into the holy place. We all have access to God.

Oh, what a Savior we have. No wonder John says, to him who loves us and who released us from our sins by his blood and then made us to be a kingdom over which he rules and made us priests who have immediate and direct access to God the Father. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

What does he mean? He means this one who has given us all of this has the right to everlasting praise, everlasting glory, everlasting sovereignty. That's what the word dominion means. In fact, it would be an eternal injustice if he didn't get the glory and he didn't get the dominion forever and ever. And then he adds that wonderful, solemn response, amen.

That means let it be, let it be. And so does John conclude his introduction and so does he sweep us into the future to grasp the richness of this incredible book. And he can't even get out of his introduction without being lost in praise. This book, beloved, will give to the one who loves us and the one who released us from our sins by his blood, the one who made us into a kingdom and made us priests before God. This book will give to him the glory and the dominion that he deserves forever and ever. You're listening to John MacArthur and a one-of-a-kind series here on Grace To You, one that's taken you through the New Testament beginning to end. Well, today's lesson put the finishing touches on one of the longest series we've ever produced with messages from every book of the New Testament. John, I'm wondering, what is the takeaway?

What's the application of such a unique collection of messages? Well, the first takeaway is that it reminds me of the kindness of the Lord to allow me to preach through the entire New Testament. Yeah, amen. It took 35 years to go verse by verse through the whole New Testament. And as beneficial as it might be for others, I am the real beneficiary of that 35 years of intense study in the New Testament. And it's wonderful to be able to select from the 27 books of the New Testament to kind of a highlight message, as we've done in this series. We've touched on every book in the New Testament. We were limited to 20 of the 27, which gave us a pretty good sweep through that wonderful part of God's revelation. We started this series with the first message I ever preached at Grace Church, the only church I've ever pastored. And we ended the study today with an exciting look at the new heavens and the new earth. So the series has covered many of the major themes in the New Testament, including the identity of Christ, justification by faith, election, the inspiration of Scripture, and many others. And we've also looked at the number of practical topics that prove Scripture has everything you need for life and godliness. All that to say, this is an excellent study for a new believer, a young person, or even a non-believer with questions about Christianity and the Bible.

The title of the series, again, The New Testament Beginning to End. You can download all 27 messages for free from our website, gty.org, and we can even get you the messages in a 27-CD album, if that works better. You can order that today. Yes, friend, this is a great overview of the New Testament, featuring some of John's most memorable sermons from the past five decades, including the very first sermon John ever delivered as pastor of Grace Community Church here in Los Angeles. To download this series or to order the CDs, contact us today. Our web address, gty.org.

You can also call our customer service representatives Monday through Friday at 800-55-GRACE. And again, this collection of landmark sermons, one from each book of the New Testament, is titled The New Testament Beginning to End. You can download the whole series today at gty.org. Also, if you'd like to dig even deeper into the New Testament, remember that John has written commentaries on every book of the New Testament. You can order a single volume or get all 34 volumes covering the entire New Testament. The commentaries are excellent for pastors, lay leaders, or anyone who wants to know God's word in greater detail. To order individual volumes or the entire MacArthur New Testament commentary series, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. That address one more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace to You television this Sunday, and then be here at the same time on Monday when John shows you How to Live for God's Glory. That's the title of the study that comes your way, with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.