Jesus Christ is presented as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, as revealed in Revelation 1. God the Father gave this revelation to the Son, who sent an angel to John, who then recorded it for the seven churches. The sermon emphasizes Jesus' perfect truthfulness, contrasting him with false prophets and highlighting his confession before Pilate as a demonstration of his kingship and divine mission to bear witness to the truth. It further explains that those who are of God will hear His voice, underscoring the importance of responding to divine truth. The message concludes by detailing Jesus' roles as priest and king, emphasizing his power to save, intercede, and ultimately reign, and calls believers to live in light of His eternal love and redemptive work.
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I'd like you to turn, if you will, play to Revelation the first chapter. Revelation one. We'll begin reading the first one. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto 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.
Blessed is he that read us, 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 a nation, grace, be unto you and teach, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests, unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen. Let us pray. Father, we just thank thee for thy word again. We thank thee for what we've already heard, and we ask thee that it will be made a reality to us in its outworking in our lives, to the end that we might follow thee as we ought, and the dictates of thy word as we should. We seek this, that we might be convinced of these things, convicted of them, and thus live. And then we ask thee that as we read now and look into thy word, that thou wilt bless us and teach us once again by thy spirit so that we're added to and we enjoy that precious word and we learn something of thy son of himself so that our hearts are drawn out to him and consequently we will desire with great desire to live for him just bless us As we consider this portion together, we ask in the Lord Jesus Christ's name.
Amen. Notice, if you will, the progression of revelation. I find this rather interesting. It says it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. But notice that God gave it unto him. And the ultimate end of it was to show his servant things which must shortly come to pass. But God gave it to his son. and he sent the son sent it and signified it by his angel unto his servant John who in turn bore record of the word of God to us so that there's progression God the Father gives it to the son who in turn gives it to the angel who gives it to John who passes it along to us it's quite a progression but this is the way it works and we see it established there particularly in this passage Now, as we read this portion, we also see that John wrote it and sent it to the seven churches which were in Asia and greets them with grace and peace, the typical greeting that Paul often used.
And then he goes on to say that the greeting comes, the grace and truth are peace, comes from him which was, which is and which was and which is to come, which I take to be the Father, God the Father. And then from the seven spirits which are before his throne, which I take to be the seven manifestations of the Spirit of God. And then lastly, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, and to him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. He goes on in this passage to tell what the Lord Jesus Christ looked like.
We have no description of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels, as you know. We don't know the color of his hair. We don't know whether he had brown eyes or blue. We assume he had brown ones being a Jew. We don't know whether his nose was likely hooked as a Jew's nose. It doesn't give any description of them. This is the only place we ever get a description of the Lord. And yet John, when he spoke about him in his first epistle, He gives empirical evidence of the law. Now, you know, today we're great on this sort of thing. Our scientists say, well, can you feel it or can you smell it or can you touch it or can you see it? We want empirical evidence. And John says, well, we had that.
We had that. Look at First John, if you will, just briefly to see that this is true. First John, the first chapter. That which was from the beginning, verse one, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, there is empirical evidence, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of truth. We have heard him, we have seen him, we have gazed upon him, we have observed him, as it were, beholding him, and then we have touched him. For the life was manifested, we have seen it and bear witness and show it to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.
And so we have evidence, the evidence that the apostles bring to us, the reality of Jesus Christ. Now here John says he sees him in this first chapter, but he also describes something of him in another way. And this is what I'd like to consider this morning. What he does here speak of him in chapter one and verse five who is the faithful witness now in the Old Testament the great prophet Moses and great he was says that the Lord would raise up a prophet like unto himself that the people must hear He proceeds afterwards to say, now, there will be other prophets that will be raised up and say, we are prophets.
But he said, some of them will be false prophets. Now, the only way to determine whether a prophet is really a true prophet or not will be by the fact that if he says something, it will come to pass one hundred percent. And then you'll know that he is a prophet of God. And God didn't leave them without witness. When a prophet spoke, well, the prophet's word was fulfilled. Now, some of his prophecies, of course, were the future. And they could not ascertain this. But whenever he spoke, God always gave an immediate fulfillment of that prophecy so that the people could be assured. But it had to be one hundred percent correct.
Now, we have such persons as Mrs. Dixon, who professed to be a prophet, prophetess. And her best, I think, has been sixty percent correct. She is a false prophet. She does not conform to what God said, one hundred percent. But Moses said there would be a prophet likened to himself whom God would raise up, and him the people must hear. If they didn't hear, judgment would be brought upon them and to them. And here we have in verse five. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, here is the faithful prophet. Here is Christ as prophet.
And, of course, his word was one hundred percent right. In whatever he said, it was right, because he is the truth. Now, if you will, I'd like you to turn to First Timothy, the sixth chapter, and observe what the Apostle Paul says about this great one. I Timothy the sixth chapter. In verse thirteen, in his exhortation to Timothy as the man of God, he makes this statement. Verse thirteen, I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession that thou keep this commandment without thought, unrebutable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now notice, before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, Jesus Christ was a faithful witness. And the Apostle picks this out of all that the Lord could have been said to have been a faithful witness in, and takes up this instance with Pontius Pilate, and he says he was a faithful witness under these conditions. So would you turn now to John's Gospel, and we'll see what he did. In John's Gospel, the eighteenth chapter, in the thirty-third verse, The Jews had brought the Lord before Pilate, demanding the death sentence.
And in verse thirty-three, then Pilate entered into the judgment hall and called Jesus and said unto him, Are thou the king of the Jews? Now the Jews were waiting in an outer court. The building was built in an outlong shape. There was an outer court in which the Jews gathered as they brought the Lord. There was the balcony in which, and Pilate was apparently resident in this place. But the Jews, because they didn't want to defile themselves, wouldn't go into the court. And so the Lord was brought into Pilate's presence. And here he stands before Pilate. Now there may have been other persons there like soldiers to guard him as a prisoner.
I don't know. But he stood not before the Jews, but before Pilate in this instance. And so Pilate says to him, Aren't thou the king of the Jews? Now here's a Gentile, a pagan, who believed that Caesar was God and Caesar was king. And he says to the Lord, aren't thou the king of the Jews? And the Lord says, Say I found this thing of myself, or did others tell it thee of me? And he's saying to Pilate, do you know this by some experience that you've had in relationships with myself? Or is it merely a matter of hearsay? And Pilate, I think, constantly answers, Am I a Jew?
He has no regard to the Jews. He says, Am I a Jew that I should know something like this? Is the idea that I should believe or anything like this? He says, I know nations, and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hath thou done? Now the Lord says, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servant fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my kingdom not from him? Now he's saying to him, he's witnessing a good confession, he's saying, yes, I have a kingdom. An interesting side thought here is this, that the Lord says, if I were on this earth as a king having a kingdom, I would go to war.
I would battle. If I were a soldier, I would fight. My servants would fight if my kingdom were this earth. But he says, my authority is not from there. I have a kingdom that is of a higher authority. I'm not to do that in this earth because this is not part of my kingdom now. Now, this points up to me personally that I have responsibilities in my government because I am an American. I am to fight if God wants me to fight. Now, I realize that I have a kingdom also there and I look for that kingdom. I look for that country. I look for that city whose builder and maker is God. But at the same time I see the Lord saying, If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
And he told Peter, he says, Peter put up the sword. He didn't let him fight. But he makes that statement first of all. And then he goes on to say, Pilate says to him in thirty-seven, Aren't thou a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest that I am a king. In other words, we would say, You have said it, you said it. That is true. to this end was I born now I think he's referring back to this end was I born that I should be king but then he makes a further statement that speaks of his witnessing again to the truth and he says and for this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth now the two are coupled together again because he is a king but he's trying to speak the truth and he's going to bear witness to the fact that he is the truth now these are dangerous words you say because Caesar was king.
There was no other king but Caesar. The Jews threatened Pilate with this very fact later on and said, you're saying that there's another king besides Caesar. And so it was something that would incur the death penalty. But the Lord witnessed a good confession and he says, I am king. I was born to this end and I bear witness to the truth because I also came to do that very thing. And so we see him as that great prophet bearing witness to the truth. Now observe also the last part of verse thirty-seven. And he says, Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Now this is a tremendous statement.
This is a tremendous statement. He says, Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Now I would like you to, if you will, take the time to turn back to John the eighth chapter. Look at chapter eight. Now these are words of encouragement to me, and I'll tell you why in a moment. Chapter eight, verse forty-five. And because I tell you the truth, the Lord says, you believe me not. Which of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me?
Now it's perfectly logical. He says to the audience who had watched him walk this farce, which of you convinces me of sin? Now tell me if you have seen anything that you could call sin in my life. There's no voice raised that says, we saw you do this, or we heard you say that. Since then, you cannot convince me of sin. Why don't you believe me when I speak? Now, this has import today of this faithful witness. Since everything we read about Jesus Christ is perfectly accurate, and it doesn't matter what it says, it is perfectly accurate.
When I was at Washington University, we had to read an essay by Einstein, his philosophy of life. I read the essay, and it wasn't more than five pages, I would say, in our book. Within that essay, he contradicted himself. Einstein contradicted himself. Believe it? He did. So I went up to the professor and I said, look at, he's contradicting himself in five pages. And the professor said, I never saw that before. Jesus Christ has uttered words and words and words. There is no contradiction. There is no lie. He speaks the truth.
He bears witness to the truth. Why don't we believe him? You see, this is the force of the thing. Why don't men believe him? He speaks the truth. He's the witness. He's God's faithful witness. And so here he says to them, Since I speak the truth, then, why do you not believe me? Verse forty-seven. He that is of God hears God's words. He therefore hears them not because you're not of God. Now think of this. When we approach men and women and boys and girls and we present them to the truth of God's word and they say, well, I just can't believe that.
You know what they're saying? I am not of God. Now we don't have to force any issues. I don't think that we have to move out and improve things and make things to work and force issues upon people. But rather we present the truth and we say this is the truth of God. Now if God is working in that individual's heart, that individual is going to respond to God. They're going to say, I believe. Now a graphic example of this was had by me when I was speaking to a group of young people at St.
Louis University. We had a discussion afterward and a boy came up to us and he sat down and he said, I've been contemplating reincarnation for six months and I've come to the conclusion that there is such a thing as reincarnation. So I said to him, the Bible says, it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this is a judgment. And he said, you just lose six months' work. I thought to myself, that fella is of God. Now he wasn't a saved boy, but he could say, if God says it, then it must be true.
Now this is the man who receives God's word. That boy is saved today, I believe. He professed to receive Christ as his Savior sometime later, and it was clear as far as I can understand. But anyhow, he received God's truth because he is of God. Now this is the principle. The apostle John also says that if a man hear our words as apostles, he is of God. And it's not a question of me getting up and saying something to an individual. It's a question of a person taking the word of God and saying, this is what God has said. Now, if that person is of God, if God is working in that individual's heart, he's going to say, I believe.
Or he responds. Now, it may be a very minor response, but that's immaterial at the moment. If He responds, He is of God. He will respond. And this is what the Lord is saying. And so He says here, go back, if you will, to John. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice. If they are of God, they will hear His voice. They will respond, is what He's saying. Now this is a tremendous thing, because look what it does for us. When we present the Word of God to a person, and they don't respond, we don't have to say, Well, I should have done it another way, or I should have used another illustration, or I just didn't say what I should have said.
That's not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to present the truth. Their responsibility is to respond to that truth. And there is a faithful God in heaven who looks upon the hearts of men, and he enables men to respond to that truth if they are of the truth. And it's not our responsibility. Ours is to present the words. Now the Lord Jesus Christ said that. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Why? Because he's a faithful witness. He's the prophet whom God has sent. Now notice Pilate's attitude in exactly what he does. Verse thirty eight. Pilate says unto him, what is truth?
Now he didn't wait for an answer. If he had waited for an answer, the Lord Jesus Christ would have said to him, I am the way. the truth and the life. And he would have led Pilate on to any degree that he would have wished to go in knowing the truth. But he didn't do it. Pilate, it says, and when he had said that, he went out. He was not of the truth. He didn't want it. If you will now go over to the nineteenth chapter. The Jews had found that Christ ought to die because he said he was the son of God. And in verse eight, when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid.
They went into the judgment hall and sat unto the Jews, Jesus, one start thou. And once again privately, he said to him, one start thou. And Jesus gave him no answer. Now Pilate holds his rank. Watch what he does. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speaketh thou not unto me, knoweth not that I have power to crucify thee, and power to release thee. He says, Look it, you better start talking. If you don't start talking, he says, Don't you know that I could have you killed, or I can release you? And observe the Lord's answer. Verse eleven, thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.
Now I think there are two meanings here. One is the ultimate above is God. There could be no power against Jesus Christ except God permitted him to have that authority. And of course every governor is appointed by God as we know. So that the authority that Pilate had was of God. God permitted him to be in that position. And so that's an obvious meaning. But I think that also it may lay the charge to Caiaphas who in the next Part of the verse, notice, therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath a greater sin. Caiaphas said, sent him to Pilate. Now, Caiaphas, he should have let him go. He said, I cheer thee by God.
Tell me whether you're the son of God or not, the son of the blessed. And the Lord says, you'll see me come in power. Now, on that confession of Jesus Christ, he should have said, all right, I bow before you. I acknowledge you. I let you go. But he didn't. And of all men who should have recognized Christ, it should have been the high priest. He should have known more of the law. He should have been in better touch than anyone in that nation, I suppose. And why did he have the greater sin? Because he had the greater light. Pilate was denying the Lord. He said three times, I find no fault in this man. And on that basis, he should have said, the man is guiltless.
You go. You Jews can't touch this man. But he wasn't doing that. So he had that sin. But the Lord says, there's one who had greater sin. The one that delivered you unto me, me unto you. He has the greater sin because he had greater life. Now think of us as human beings here in our world and particularly in the United States. There's a tremendous responsibility that is ours. We can go into any bookstore, I suppose, and purchase a Bible. We can purchase a Bible for as low as fifty cents a New Testament. I'm sure that we can do that. We can purchase a full Bible from the American Bible Society for about three dollars, a full Bible, a good Bible.
The Word of God is so accessible to us. There's no government that says in our states that says you can't read it. There's no police force that's going to come and break into your home and take your Bible and put it on a bond farm, burn it. What a responsibility we have as Americans to respond to the truth, to hold to that truth, to know that truth, to practice that truth. And what a tremendous responsibility men have to the gospel when we can turn on our radios and hear five different Christian programs, as of morning we'll say, put on our TV set and hear the gospel preached.
those in our world who are out distributing tracks. And we say, but there's so much false doctrine. But he that is of God hears the truth. You see? And God doesn't let men be deceived who want the truth. We don't have to worry about the false doctrine. We have to present the truth. And God will back his truth. He'll witness to the truth. And if a person is seeking the truth, false doctrine will not deceive them. God won't let them be deceived. Because he that is of God hears the truth. And God will see to us, but think of the responsibility of men. When the Word of God is being so disseminated in our world, in our nation, in the need of our response to it, and then think of ourselves.
I don't suppose that there are many gatherings of God's people in our world that have the Bible honored more than we who gather as we do. I was speaking to two men, a doctor of one denomination and a preacher of another, and he said, what is your creed? And I said, the Bible. He said, yeah, but I mean, he says, what do you believe? I mean, what do you make? I said, a statement of faith. I said, the Bible. He says, yeah, but you have to have something. I said, it's the Bible. He said, you know what your trouble is? You teach your people the Bible. So he said to me.
I can't say anything but amen. And we have that truth above other men, above other Christians. We go to a fair, and it's surprising the ignorance of Christians as the word of God as we speak to them. Things that we take for granted. What a responsibility we have as God's people to live that truth, to believe it, to covet it, to pursue it. And who is the one who is the faithful witness? Jesus Christ. Will you go back to Revelation, please? verse five and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead would you turn please to Hebrews the fifth chapter the seventh chapter the faithful witness the first begotten of the dead and I would like to suggest to you that as the faithful witness of the prophet The first begotten of
the dead is our Lord Jesus Christ as priest. Verse twenty. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest, priest, the Lord Jesus. For those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath, by him that saith said unto him, The Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever. after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth ever, the first begotten from the dead, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Our great high priest, the first begotten from the dead. Now in him is life. In him is natural life. He spoke and beings were brought into being, whether they be angelic or whether they be human. He spoke and animal life came into existence. He's the author of all life. As a faithful witness, he witnessed to this ability on earth. You remember the twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus, whom he took by the hand and said, Young maid arise, and she arose. The widow of Nain is she proceeded with her son on a bear, and men carrying him, and the Lord touched the bear, and they stopped, and he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.
And this young man arose. Lazareth four days dead in a grave. And the Jews have a tradition that is maintained today. That the spirit of an individual, when they die, hovers over the body for three days. And if the body doesn't come to life, the spirit goes off into Jewish heaven, I suppose. But nevertheless, it will leave after three days. And if they held that at this time, the Lord said, okay, he'll remain that way four days. The spirit is gone. The man is dead. And he cries with a loud voice, lashes come forth, and he raises them from the dead. And he proves that within himself he'd have power.
But he says, I have power to lay down my life. And he bowed his head, and he said, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He died as no other man ever died. But then I have power to take it again. And he was raised from the dead, the first groups of them that slept, the first begotten of the dead, living, the living Lord. And as that living Lord, He becomes our great high priest. And so we have Him as the first begotten of the dead. And what does this do? This says to me that He's able to save me forevermore. Why? Because He ever liveth and make intercession for me. But it says more than that. It says also that I'm going to have a life like His life.
He's going to give me a glorious body like unto His glorified body. because he has that power, he has that authority in himself. And he's our great high priest as the one who ever lives to make intercession for us. What a savior, what a God we have in our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest. And then lastly, as we go back to Revelation, we have, and the prince of the kings of the earth. It doesn't say he's a king among kings. It says he's the prince of the kings. He's over all the kings of the earth. He's at now.
He hasn't taken that position, but he is at now. He said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And then he says, now go and deal with that fact. Now think of the encouragement to us as Christians. Here he gives us the truth as a truth to speak it and to be faithful witnesses. He maintains this as our great high priest and he suckers us and all that's involved in his priestly occupation and keeps us from falling and keeps us eternally secure and gives us eternally and assures us off it because he's living. But also he is the one who is king of kings and lord of lords.
And in that position he has all power, both in heaven and in earth. And so he says to us as his people, now live for me. I want you to live and be faithful in your confession of me. Hold it fast. And we say, Lord, I can't. I don't have that ability. He says, all power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. And if I ask you to do something, or if I command you to do it, I will give you the ability to do it. And nothing can deter you, because all power is given unto me. Now go. And so, as a king of kings and lord of lords now, we have that blessed privilege of serving such a great one and knowing that he's going to back us in whatever he asks us to do.
And we can look to him as that king's king, that prince of the kings of the earth. But someday he's going to declare this. And that's going to be a wonderful day, isn't it? When men are put down, and when those who say, we will thrill, take God off this thrill, and as some have even said in this our day, We will bring him down from his heaven. And in that day they will bow before him and acknowledge him for all that he is. And he'll take his place and rule with absolute righteousness in a world that needs it so very much. We, if we were in that day as citizens of this earth, would be able to walk out at night at any time, not fear any mugging or raping.
Our children could play as they would. any place at any time. There will be that honesty that will be a part of that righteousness that covers the earth as the oceans do. There will be no sickness or death unless there's sin. And it's going to be a glorious thing because our King is going to reign. But then there's the ultimate in which he takes this place forever and ever. is that great king, and we shall reign forever with him and serve this glorious one. What a prospect is ours, because he is the prince of the kings of the earth.
But then notice just the last few verses as we close. Verse five, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And I've been contemplating this more and more of late, that we're not to be concerned about our love, We're to be concerned about his law. I can remember Peter Powell some years ago saying that his dad was of such an age that he could no longer work, but the old man would get up every morning singing a hymn, and he said he didn't sing it softly, he sang it out loud.
They could be awakened by it in the whole house. He also said that the old man was put into the hospital, and he didn't change his process of getting up in the morning. So the nurses complained and they said to him, now look at it, you ought to tell your father to tune this down a little bit. He said, all we can hear is that him going through the hospital. He said, I will on one condition. There's a man in the next room that is constantly taking God's name and brain and cursing. If you'll get that man to stop his cursing, I'll get my father to stop his thing. Needless to say, he sang. But this old man would sit in his chair in the sunlight and he would rock him back and forth with his Bible on his lap, not reading it, but having read it.
And Peter Pell would go into him and he'd say, Dad, what are you doing? He said, I'm sitting here letting God love me. Now this is the important thing that God loves us. Unto him that loves us. This is the important thing. My love, so what? You know, unsaved people say to you, I love God. They don't love God. They don't know God to love them. That's not important. It's the important thing is that God loves them. The important thing is not our love to God. The important thing is he loves us. Now, if we sit and contemplate his love, we'll love him. That will be an automatic result. But the important thing that he loves us, and he loves us with an eternal love, and he loves us because he loves us.
And He loves us not conditionally in any sense, but He loves us because He loves us. And that's the kind of God we have that we can always say, He loves us. And when we fall into sin as His people, we can say, He loves us. It hasn't changed. He loves us. And this is a wonderful thing, that He loves us. And He loves us. And He washed us from our sins in His own blood. And not only that, He's made us the kingdom of grace unto God. and his Father, may we conduct ourselves as such. And then the doxology, to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen. And when we see our Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, as that great prophet, the first begotten of the dead, as our great high priest, and the prince of the kings of the earth, as the king of kings and lord of lords, we say to him, be glory and dominion for ever and ever.