Who Are We? Part Two: The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Who Are We? Part Two

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:1–9, Galatians 1:11–24

Introduction: Every Generation Needs God to Speak Personally

Brothers and sisters, today we continue our fellowship on the subject, “Who are we?”

In the previous message, we saw a very serious matter: it is very easy for people to turn the question “Who are we?” from a spiritual question into an outward question; from a question concerning Christ into a question concerning a name; from a question of reality into a question of identity.

So today we want to go one step further. We want to ask: if we do not define ourselves by a name, if we do not maintain ourselves by tradition, and if we do not prove ourselves by our practices, then what do we really need?

The answer is: we need the revelation of Jesus Christ.

That is to say, we need God, by the Holy Spirit, to personally unveil His Son within us.

In church history, why were so many first-generation Christian groups so powerful? Why did they have such a living testimony? Why could they stand for the Lord, and even pay a price for Him?

It was not because they had a complete system.
It was not because they had a successful organization.
Nor was it because they had a mature tradition.

Very often, it was precisely because they had nothing. They had no resources to rely on, no background to boast in, and no system to protect themselves. They could only look to God in simplicity. In such a condition, God spoke to them, the Holy Spirit worked within them, and God revealed Christ to them.

Brothers and sisters, this kind of speaking, this kind of revelation, is not something one person can give to another.

Even a spiritual person cannot directly impart revelation to another person.

A person can testify, a person can preach, and a person can help us; but only God can reveal His Son in us.

This is the center of today’s message.

We may inherit the riches of those who went before us.
We may read their messages.
We may sing their hymns.
We may use the spiritual vocabulary they left behind.

But if the Holy Spirit does not speak again within us, if God does not unveil Christ again within us, then these riches can gradually become teaching, then tradition, and finally our identity.

This is the dangerous transition we mentioned before:

The first generation receives revelation.
The second generation receives teaching.
The third generation receives tradition.
The fourth generation receives identity.

Brothers and sisters, this does not mean that teaching is unimportant. It does not mean that tradition is necessarily bad. Nor does it mean that spiritual inheritance has no value. The question is: has what we have inherited become, in the Holy Spirit, a living revelation within us?

Today, we want to look at this matter through Paul’s experience.

In Galatians 1, Paul tells us that the gospel he preached was not received from man, nor was it taught by man, but came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is not an ordinary statement. This statement tells us the foundation of Paul’s whole life and ministry.

His foundation was not a borrowed conviction.
His foundation was not someone else’s interpretation of the Scriptures.
His foundation was not a religious system.
His foundation was his first-hand, direct encounter with Christ.

1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Gave Paul an Unshakable Certainty

Paul says in Galatians 1:11–12:

“For I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Brothers and sisters, Paul was not saying that teaching is unimportant.
He was not saying that fellowship is unimportant.
Nor was he saying that we do not need the help of the brothers and sisters.

Paul later met Peter. He worked with Barnabas. He also had fellowship among the churches. So he did not mean, “I do not need anyone.” What he meant was this: “The gospel I preach and the foundation of my apostleship did not come from man.”

He did not merely receive someone else’s interpretation of the Scriptures.
He did not merely inherit a religious tradition.
He personally met the Lord. God revealed His Son to him.

Brothers and sisters, there is nothing wrong with receiving another person’s preaching. There is nothing wrong with listening to messages. There is nothing wrong with reading spiritual books. But we must ask a very serious question:

Has what I have heard become God’s living speaking within me?
Is what I know merely something someone else taught me?
Or, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, has the Lord’s word become within me a supply of life—something true, living, and even the Lord Himself?

Too many people have read and heard the Lord’s word, yet they have not received life, nor have they received the Lord Himself. This was the mistake of the Pharisees.

These two statements are very different:

“I believe this because a brother I trust taught me this.”

And:

“God has caused me to see, and to meet, His Son personally.”

Second-hand truth can persuade the mind.
First-hand revelation touches the spirit, gains the heart, and possesses the whole person.

If a person has only received teaching, then when he meets stronger arguments, human pressure, blows from circumstances, or suffering, he may be shaken. But Paul could endure persecution, rejection, misunderstanding, and loneliness because his foundation was not an inherited system of belief.

He could say:

“I know whom I have seen.
I know what God has revealed to me.
I cannot deny it.”

This is the certainty that the revelation of Jesus Christ gives to a person.

Brothers and sisters, this certainty is not stubbornness.
It is not human self-confidence.
Nor is it religious rigidity.

It is because God has spoken within him; God has unveiled Christ to him; therefore, he can no longer pretend that he has not seen.

2. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Exposed the Direction of Paul’s Former Life

Before Christ was revealed to Paul, Paul was a very zealous religious man. He said:

“For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”

Brothers and sisters, please notice: Paul was not a careless person.
He was not unserious.
He was not irreverent.
He was not without knowledge.

On the contrary, he was sincere.
He was zealous.
He was disciplined.
He had received a strong religious education.
He advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries.
He was exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers.

Yet such a man was opposing God.

This is a very strong warning to all who serve the Lord:

Zeal is not the same as revelation.

A person can have biblical knowledge and yet not necessarily know God.
A person can have strong tradition and yet not necessarily live before God.
A person can have strict morality and yet not necessarily have Christ.
A person can have religious discipline and yet not necessarily be governed by the Holy Spirit.
A person can receive the approval of many and yet not necessarily receive God’s approval.
A person can be very sincere in consecration and yet still not touch or live in God’s present purpose.

Before Damascus, Paul may have thought that he was serving God and defending God’s interests. But when Christ appeared to him, he discovered that the One he was persecuting was the very Lord he claimed to serve.

What a shock this must have been to Paul!

Brothers and sisters, the revelation of Jesus Christ does not merely add some new spiritual information to our existing religious life. True revelation judges our former life. When the light shines in, a person is exposed.

Paul began to see that the tradition, education, zeal, and religious achievement he relied on could not bring him into God’s purpose.

The revelation of Christ became the watershed of his life. From that day onward, his life was divided into two sides:

On one side was what he was by nature, tradition, and human achievement.
On the other side was what God had purposed, what God intended to accomplish and attain, in His Son.

This is why true revelation is often painful.

Revelation does not only show us how glorious Christ is; it also shows us how wrong we have been without Christ.

3. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Replaced Paul’s Religious Identity with Christ

Before Paul was converted, his identity was built upon many visible and inherited things:

His ancestry.
His Jewish tradition.
His progress in religion.
His zeal.
His reputation.
His position among his contemporaries.

He said that he was “more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”

In other words, Paul once knew very clearly who he was.

He knew which group he belonged to.
He knew which tradition he stood in.
He also knew how others viewed him.
He had a very clear religious identity.

But once Christ was revealed to him, that identity was removed and set aside.

Fundamentally, he was no longer a successful Pharisee.
He was no longer merely a defender of the traditions of his fathers.
He became a man defined by the Son of God.

Brothers and sisters, this is very closely related to our subject, “Who are we?”

Why do people like to be known by a name?
Why do people like to be known by outward practices?
Because a name gives us identity.
Practices give us distinction.
Tradition gives us security.

Paul once had all these things. But the revelation of Jesus Christ brought him out of them, so that he no longer defined himself by a religiously zealous “I,” but by the living Christ.

Therefore, true revelation does something very deep within a person:

It transfers our identity from the religious “I” to the living Christ.
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

Paul no longer mainly asked:

“What does my tradition require me to do?”

He began to ask:

“What is the purpose God intends to attain through His Son?”

Brothers and sisters, this is a great transition.

4. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Gave Paul an Inward Commission

Paul continues:

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”

This is the central point of the whole passage.

Please notice the sequence:

First, God separated Paul.
Second, God called Paul by grace.
Third, God revealed His Son in Paul.
Fourth, Paul was sent to preach Christ among the Gentiles.

Brothers and sisters, here we see a very important principle:

Ministry comes out of revelation.

Paul was not first given a work, then sent into a training center to be trained to complete that work. Rather, Christ was first revealed in him; then, out of that revelation, the commission God gave him was produced.

This is very important for all who serve the Lord.

We can only truly minister what God has first wrought into us.
We can only truly serve others with what has first become reality in us.
We cannot serve people merely with information.
We cannot serve people merely with materials.
We cannot serve people merely with the experiences of others.

Paul did not merely preach doctrines about Christ. What he preached was the Christ who had conquered him, exposed him, called him, and begun to live in him.

The phrase “to reveal His Son in me” is exceedingly precious. It does not merely mean that Paul saw Christ outwardly. It means that Christ was unveiled within him and became the governing reality of his life.

Therefore, Paul’s ministry was not:

“I learned some things about Jesus.”

Rather, it was:

“God has revealed His Son in me, and now I live in order that He may be made known.”

Brothers and sisters, this is the ministry produced by revelation.

It turns ministry from a kind of work into an inward necessity.

It is not that I may do it or may not do it.
It is that I cannot but do it, because Christ has become real within me.

5. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Made Christ the Content of Paul’s Ministry

Paul said that God revealed His Son in him “that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.”

Please notice, Paul did not say:

“That I might preach some doctrines.”
“That I might establish a movement.”
“That I might promote a new religious system.”
“That I might proclaim a particular set of practices.”

He said:

“That I might preach Him.”

Brothers and sisters, Christ is not only the source of the revelation; Christ is also the message itself.

This shaped Paul’s entire ministry. His burden was not to bring people into a new set of religious concepts, not to bring people into a deeper interpretation of the Bible, not to bring people into a new group identity, and not to bring people into a new set of terms. His burden was to bring people into a living relationship with Christ and to see Christ formed in them.

Therefore, later in Galatians 4:19, he said:

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”

Brothers and sisters, this word is exceedingly precious.

Because Paul’s ministry began with Christ revealed in him, the goal of his ministry was that Christ would be formed in those whom he served.

This is one of the clearest marks of a ministry that comes from revelation.

A service built mainly upon second-hand knowledge easily reproduces terminology, practices, interpretations, traditions, and group identity. People learn how to speak, how to do things, how to discern, and how to position themselves.

But a ministry produced by revelation is not satisfied with these things. It seeks the multiplication of Christ, the formation of Christ, and Christ becoming life and reality in others.

Brothers and sisters, this is why Paul had travail in birth.

True ministry is not merely giving people information, doctrine, or a way of speaking.
True ministry is to travail in birth so that Christ may be formed in others.

6. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Freed Paul from Immediate Dependence upon Human Approval

Paul continues:

“Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me.”

Brothers and sisters, Paul was not despising fellowship.
Nor was he despising the brothers who were apostles before him.
Later, he did meet Peter and James, and he greatly valued the fellowship of the brothers.

But at this crucial beginning, he did not make human approval the foundation of the certainty of his service.

If Paul had immediately gone up to Jerusalem and asked:

“Do you approve of what I have seen?”

Then inwardly, his certainty might have been built psychologically upon human confirmation.

But God did not let him do this. God first established him inwardly.

Brothers and sisters, this is very important, because human affirmation can easily become a substitute for divine certainty.

A person may say:

“I believe this because respected leading brothers all agree.”

But what if one day those respected leaders disagree?
What if one day circumstances change?
What if one day others’ opinions no longer support you?

Paul needed a foundation deeper than agreement with men. He needed to be able to stand before God alone.

This does not mean that he became independent in the flesh. No.

True revelation does not make a person independent through pride.

True revelation first makes a person utterly dependent upon God; then, in God’s certainty, it enables him to have proper fellowship with others.

Brothers and sisters, the strongest spiritual fellowship is not that everyone outwardly has the same practices, nor that everyone says the same things. True and strong fellowship exists among people who each have a personal, fresh, and real relationship with the Lord.

Otherwise, so-called fellowship can easily become conformity—only the pursuit of unified expressions, unified practices, and unified outward forms.

7. The Revelation of Jesus Christ First Brought Paul into Hiddenness

Paul said:

“But I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.”

We do not know exactly what Paul experienced in Arabia, but the sequence is meaningful.

After Paul received the revelation, he did not immediately stand before the public.
He did not immediately enter into open manifestation.
He did not immediately become a vessel known by all.

He withdrew into a hidden place.

There was hiddenness.
There was waiting.
There was deep inward adjustment.
There was a reexamination, in the light of Christ, of many things he had relied on in the past.

Brothers and sisters, revelation is not merely something that gives a person a message to preach. Revelation must first be wrought into that person. Everything Paul had trusted in before had to be reexamined in the light of Christ:

His understanding of the law.
His view of righteousness.
His study of the Scriptures.
His understanding of the Messiah.
His attitude toward the Gentiles.
His understanding of the people of God.
His view of his own life.

The revelation of Jesus Christ may come to a person in a moment, but the meaning and effect of that revelation require a lifetime to be worked out.

The Lord may cause us to see Christ in a moment, but that vision may take many years to reorganize us, reconstitute us, and readjust our entire being.

This is why hidden seasons are often necessary in the perfecting of God’s servants.

God must make the message a part of the messenger.
God must first work the word into the person, and then release the word through that person.

After Paul encountered the Lord’s light on the road to Damascus, he spent three days without eating or drinking, praying before God. Later, before going up to Jerusalem to meet the brothers who were apostles before him, there was a period of three years.

Brothers and sisters, this reminds us: do not pursue immediate manifestation.

Sometimes, when God gives us a little light, He does not intend for us to immediately take it and speak it to others.

God wants that light first to be wrought into us and become part of our life.

8. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Turned Paul from a Persecutor into a Preacher

The churches later heard one thing:

“He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.”

This is the visible impact produced by revelation.

Paul did not merely change his opinion.
He did not merely adopt a new religious position.
His entire direction in life was completely reversed.

The persecutor became a preacher.
The destroyer became a builder.
The defender of the Jewish religion became an apostle to the Gentiles.
The one who once wanted to suppress the name of Jesus became one who suffered for that name.

Brothers and sisters, this is the evidence of true revelation:

It changes the direction of a person’s life.

A person may claim to have revelation, but if that so-called revelation does not bring repentance, does not bring turning, does not bring obedience, and does not bring a willingness to pay the price, then it may only be an attractive insight.

True revelation opens a new way.

In Paul, this way was very clear.

What he once counted gain, he now counted loss.
What he once opposed, he now served.
What he once considered dangerous, he now proclaimed as God’s purpose.
What he once tried to destroy, he now paid the price of his life for.

This is the change produced when Christ is revealed in a person.

9. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Made Paul Willing to Pay the Price

Brothers and sisters, the revelation Paul received did not make his life easier.

On the contrary, this revelation brought him into many hardships:

Misunderstanding.
Rejection.
Persecution.
Loneliness.
Suffering.
Continual conflict.

But Paul did not retreat.

Why?

Because the revelation produced an inward necessity in him.

The revelation constrained him, moved him, and compelled him to go on.

A person who has merely received teaching may give up that teaching when the price becomes too high.

But a person who has truly seen cannot easily live as though he had not seen.

This is why Paul later said:

“Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!”

Brothers and sisters, the first-hand revelation of Jesus Christ produces responsibility.

Once God reveals His Son in us, that revelation becomes an entrustment and a commission. We are no longer free to live merely for ourselves.

The clearer the revelation, the greater the responsibility.
The deeper the seeing, the more real the price.
The more Christ becomes real in us, the less we can continue living toward ourselves as before.

10. The Revelation of Jesus Christ Caused People to Glorify God, Not to Exalt Paul

Finally, “they glorified God in me.”

Brothers and sisters, this is a beautiful ending.

The churches did not merely admire Paul.
They did not say, “Paul is so impressive.”
They did not say, “Paul is so gifted.”
Nor did they say, “Paul is such a special person.”

Rather, because of Paul, they glorified God.

This is the true result of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

It does not make the servant the center.
It makes the servant clear evidence of God’s grace.

When people looked at Paul, they could only say:

“This is not something man can do. Only God could have done this.”

His transformed life became a testimony of God’s grace.

Brothers and sisters, this also gives us a test.

Does our service bring people to the servant, or to God?
Does it cause people to attach themselves to a group, or to see Christ?
Does it cause people to exalt a certain teaching, or to glorify God because Christ has transformed a person’s life?
Does it cause people to remember a name, or to know the Lord Himself?

The revelation of Jesus Christ should not produce spiritual self-importance.

True revelation should produce humility.

Because the one who receives revelation knows:

“This did not come from me. This was not my ability. This was not my cleverness. It was God, by grace, revealing His Son in me.”

The Revelation of Jesus Christ and Second-Hand Teaching

Brothers and sisters, we may distinguish between them in this way:

Second-hand knowledge gives people information about Christ;
the revelation of Jesus Christ unveils Christ to the heart.

Second-hand knowledge may cause people to agree;
the revelation of Jesus Christ causes a person to be inwardly captured by Christ.

Second-hand knowledge depends heavily on human confirmation;
the revelation of Jesus Christ gives a person certainty before God.

Second-hand knowledge may merely repeat another person’s conviction;
the revelation of Jesus Christ becomes personal conviction before God.

Second-hand knowledge easily reproduces terminology and practices;
the revelation of Jesus Christ seeks the multiplication of the life of Christ.

Second-hand knowledge can only leave people in outward understanding;
the revelation of Jesus Christ reorganizes the whole life.

Second-hand knowledge may seek human recognition;
the revelation of Jesus Christ accepts hiddenness and cost.

Second-hand knowledge makes truth something we possess;
the revelation of Jesus Christ allows truth to possess and own us.

But brothers and sisters, this does not mean that we reject teachers, books, or fellowship. No. Paul himself also received help from others.

The proper relationship is this:

The testimony of others can bring us to the door, but only God can reveal His Son in us.

We may hear a message from someone else. But at a certain point, the Holy Spirit must make that message fresh, living, real, and personal within us.

Then we no longer merely say:

“Brother so-and-so taught this.”

We begin to be able to say:

“By the grace of God, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, I myself have seen something of this reality.”

Now, brothers and sisters, let us apply this fellowship to the question, “Who are we?”

A group may inherit many things:

Spiritual riches and history.
A correct position and ground.
A precious ministry.
Biblical practices.
Correct terminology.

But none of these can replace the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The first generation may say:

“God revealed His Son to us.”

The next generation may say:

“Our fathers saw some of the riches of Christ.”

The generation after that may say:

“This is what our forefathers believed.”

Finally, people may only be able to say:

“This is our identity.”

At that point, revelation has already become “the tradition of the fathers.”

Therefore, every generation must come again before God and pray:

“Lord, reveal Your Son in us.”

We cannot live by the revelation Paul received.
We cannot live by the revelation Luther received.
We cannot live by the revelation Darby received.
We cannot live by the revelation T. Austin-Sparks received.
We cannot live by the revelation Watchman Nee received.
Nor can we live by the revelation Witness Lee received.

It is impossible for us to live before God by any revelation that another person has received from God.

Their testimony can help us greatly, but God must, by the Holy Spirit, make Christ personally known within us.

Brothers and sisters, the true continuation of God’s testimony is not merely the passing on of correct interpretation, teaching, and practice from one generation to another.

The true continuation of God’s testimony is that there is a people who not only receive the records of the knowledge and experience of Christ Jesus from those who went before them, but who, helpless and having nothing, look to the Holy Spirit—the same Spirit who moved their forefathers then, to move them today, and even to move them in a greater measure.

The true continuation of God’s testimony is the fresh, living, and real revelation of Jesus Christ in every generation. In fact, every generation should be the first generation.

Conclusion: The Revealed Christ Is More Real Than Everything Else

Finally, we must ask: how do we know that we have truly received this revelation?

The ultimate evidence is not that we can explain it correctly.

The ultimate evidence is that this revelation produces in us what it produced in Paul.

It breaks our confidence in the flesh.
It frees us from human approval.
It makes our identity centered in Christ.
It causes us to obey God’s calling.
It makes us willing to pay the price and suffer.
It makes our life a testimony through which others glorify God.

Brothers and sisters, Paul’s testimony in Galatians 1 can be summarized in one sentence:

The revelation of Jesus Christ made Christ more real to Paul than his tradition, his reputation, his security, his relationships, his sufferings, and even his own life.

This is what we need most today.

Not merely to know things about Christ.
Not merely to preserve what those before us saw.
Not merely to inherit a spiritual name.
Not merely to maintain a set of correct practices.

What we need is not so-called deeper riches or higher expressions. Many times, what we lack is simply this: that upon what the Lord has already spoken, He would speak again by the Holy Spirit. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

We need God, by the Holy Spirit, to reveal His Son in us, so that Christ may become the most real One to us.

May the Lord have mercy on us.
May the Lord speak again in our generation.
May the Lord not only let us hear what others have seen, but cause us to personally see His Son before Him.
May each one of us be able to say before God:

“Lord, it is not only that I have heard of You. It is not only that I know teachings about You. Rather, by the Holy Spirit, You have revealed Yourself in me. I have not only heard of You by the hearing of the ear; I long to see You with my own eyes.”

May the Lord gain us. Amen.