A Deeper Revelation of Jesus Christ: What Every Christian Truly Needs – Part 1

Ephesians 1: I’m going to read verse 16. I do not cease giving thanks for you, making a mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of your calling. Is anybody going to correct me? Well, thank you… of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

Now return to verse 17. That God might grant to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Turn to Ephesians 3:3. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. And whatever that verse says, it says this: Christ is a mystery, and there is a mystery.

I’m going to take those passages of Scripture, and Galatians 1:12: For I received, and he’s speaking of his gospel, for I neither received it from men or man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through the revelation of Jesus Christ. And in Galatians 1:15-16: But when He had set me apart even from my mother’s womb…sister, he chose to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior, but God had already set him apart from his mother’s womb, which is irreconcilable. But when He had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, He was pleased to reveal His Son in me. Praise the Lord.

Now, there is a recurring word in all of this, and that word is revelation, and that’s what I want to talk to you about tonight, and that is… I’m really tempted to say that we need a revelation of Jesus Christ, but actually that’s not true. The body of believers needs a revelation of Jesus Christ… so that your heart might be open. Isn’t that fascinating? To a people, he said that your heart, and that being the eyes of a church, might have its eyes opened to a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now, when you get used to that, I’ll go on and speak, but we’re going to listen to it for a minute. No message is more difficult to bring than the one I’m going to bring you tonight. It’s going to take everything you’ve got, if that stays on, to even remotely grasp anything I have to say. I’ve only brought this message one other time. It was two weeks ago, and it was one of the most difficult things I ever did in my life…and I didn’t say a great deal. Paul said elsewhere, “I bow my knee before the Lord Jesus Christ, before the God of heaven and earth, that you might have a revelation of His Son.” And He says here that I pray that God may give you the wisdom and revelation of the experiential knowledge of His Son Christ Jesus. Then he says, before I was born or in my mother’s womb, He set me apart that Christ might be revealed in me. Now, I assume that is possible then for you and me. Have you ever thought that God might have set you apart, that you might have a revelation of Jesus Christ?

Now, in the first century we had men who preached a revelation of Christ, and because they preached it, for reasons we cannot understand or comprehend, He was revealed in others. Somewhere around the 3rd century, we lost those kinds of men who preached the revelation of Jesus Christ. He preached a revelation as did other men, and because it was preached and because of the working of the Holy Spirit, others received that revelation. Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th century, that revelation was no longer preached, and when it is not preached, it’s not preached because men don’t have it. Therefore, if men do not have that revelation and do not preach a revelation they have, then God’s people are never exposed to it and have no opportunity for the Holy Spirit to make that revelation possible.

Now, I want to make it clear that I said around 300 or 400 A.D., and I’m going to make a little parenthesis here. You’ve heard a great deal, and quite often it’s said what the church needs today and what’s wrong with the church today, and you will get the distinct impression that the church of Jesus Christ here at the end of the 20^th century and in the beginning of the 21^st is really worse off than it’s been at any other time. That is not true. If you’re going to talk about worse off, then you’re talking about 1700 years. You’re not talking about our generation. Our generation of the church is no better or worse than other generations. In fact, we’re a lot better off since the Reformation.

But I wouldn’t want the church of 100 years ago. I really wouldn’t. Women wearing bonnets, preachers preaching six hours, going out under a brush arbor preaching hellfire and brimstone. I’m not into that, and you’re not either. It would not mean a great deal to you. I wouldn’t want to be a part of the church in 1920. It’s hard enough to go to church as it is today; in 1920, they didn’t have air conditioning. But there are a lot of things today. There’s some pretty good Christian literature if you look really, really hard. Something is happening in America right now that has never happened before. America has never had an organic expression of the church. All it’s ever had has been what it got from England, and that’s not been true before.

There are a few Americans, us who are called fat, dumb, and happy…there are a few Christians in America for the first time in our history, who are beginning to see a little bit of the deep things of Christ. That’s never happened before. Now, if you’re going to say what the church in the 20^th century needs, you need to go back to the 3rd or 4th century. Saints, we’re not so bad off compared to other centuries, but if you compare us with the first two or three centuries, ooh, we are all in bad shape—1700 years of us.

Because of this lack of revelation, we hear the Gospel preached today that we hear. It is because of a total lack of revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in us that we fall for all the dumb things we fall for. I want to stop a moment and say some of the things you have done have been so ridiculously stupid it is unbelievable. Do you remember when you walked into a meeting, and you heard what we need is submission and authority in the church, and that thing got so big, and it got so big, and there were so many scriptures, and you were overcome by, yeah. Yeah. That’s it. That’s it, and boy, did you get taken to spin dry.

Then there was that meeting you walked into, and they said, “Boy, what we need is the power of God.” We need the power of God. Power of God. They brought all these messages to you and the power of God, power of God, and it just overwhelmed you. Yeah, that’s it. We need the power of God. I want to pause for a moment and speak to you a moment about the power of God. Anytime anyone speaks to you about the power of God, be pretty sure that man has never had a revelation of Jesus Christ. My personal impression is that most men who speak on the power of God are “Sauls” who have great outward power, know very little internal transformation, and have very little depth in Christ. Now, I lay that down. I don’t back up.