“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John…”

which God gave Him

The Father is the ultimate source of the book of Revelation; therefore, this information bears supreme authority.

God gives to the humanity of Jesus the Kingdom, and then Jesus gives the Kingdom back to God the Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:24).

to show His servants

The word “show” means to show by making known – to bring to light, display, exhibit, point out. The humanity of Christ, though endowed with great sagacity, needed revelation to understand things of the future. The humanity of Christ is not the same as His deity. His humanity needed to depend entirely on the Father.

The final recipients of the book of Revelation are “His servants (slaves).” God did not give this book to those who speculate about prophecy but those who have servants’ hearts. God wants us to take more than a curious attitude about future things. To the extent that we carry the servant’s heart, to that extent, we will profit from this book. Revelation is a word from the Lord to slaves, from a Master to His slaves.

What good is revelation if it is not clear? The Book of Revelation is a showcase of the Lord Jesus. The Father puts Jesus on display here as nowhere else in the Bible. The last part of this chapter gives a full-length portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The only people to whom God shows off His Son is His own. The Bible is a closed book to those without Christ. Each child of God has a built-in Bible teacher — the Holy Spirit. Non-Christians do not have the Holy Spirit, so they cannot understand the Bible, much less the Book of Revelation.

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Principle:

God’s people want to know Jesus better.

Application:

There may have been times when you tried to read a book and did not understand it or find it interesting. You possibly read a chapter and put the book back on the shelf. Years later, you meet the author personally. Then you go back to the book, and it takes on new significance for you. This is certainly true with the Bible. If we know the Lord personally, we want to know everything He communicates to us, even the Book of Revelation.

Now that we know the Lord personally, the Book of Revelation adds up. We love the Lord Jesus. We want to know everything we can about Him.