Revelation & Reality or Religion?

“And Simon Peter answered thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God”

Matthew 16:16 KJV

“But when it pleased God who separated me from his mothers womb and called be my His grace to reveal His Son in me”

Galatians 1:15-16 KJV

Today we live in a society with a virtual world fast overshadowing reality and what is truly real. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the church get back to the reality of Jesus: to the revealed Jesus, to the One who can by the Father’s will be revealed into hearts that are open.

“Who do men say that I am?”

In Matthew 16 Jesus asks the ultimate question. He wanted to hear what would come from the inside of his disciples, not a regurgitation of something He had taught them, but He wanted to see what they possessed pertaining to revelation.

“They began to answer Him that some say thou art John the Baptist, some say Elias; others, Jeremias or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?”

Jesus was not interested in the they, what they thought, or they said, or they believed. It was a poignant and personal question, what do you say?

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.”

It was not a calculated answer. It was not an answer rationalized through his thought processes or his senses, trying to figure out who Jesus was. It was an immediate and direct response from the heart. He said it because it was true, it was real. He said it because he could say nothing else, the Father had revealed it to him.

Jesus responds “Blessed are you Simon Barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you but my Father which is in heaven.”

The answer given by the other disciples, that others said He might be one of the prophets, was based on observations, comparisons, their senses and maybes. Contrastingly, Peter’s answer was based on revelation: something that did not originate with him but was given to him, opened up to him, revealed to him by the Father. This takes it out of the realm of what man can do, what man can see, what man can produce of God on his own: which is absolutely nothing. This is why we see so much energy expended in Christians today. So much money is raised and spent and there are so many burnt out Christians with their heads full of messages, managements and movements. Yet society around us is undone and in many cases the church impotent when it comes to true spiritual power. We must see the significance of this conversation between Jesus and Peter, the simple fisherman who walked possessing this incredible revelation, while even he himself failed in the coming days. Nonetheless, the revelation would stand.

Jesus’ conversation with Peter continues, “And I say unto you that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus looks at Peter and tells him that he is a rock, not of his own strength, as stated earlier that strength is about to fail him. He is a rock because of what has been given him: the revelation of who Jesus is. Upon this rock He would build His church, not the rock of Peter, his personalities, strengths or weaknesses, but upon the rock of the revelation of Jesus, the reality of Christ revealed by the Father. The gates of hell will not, cannot and shall not prevail against that. Through the ages of Christian history, movements have come and gone, denominations have risen and fallen. There have been times of refreshing and revival and times of defeat and discouragement, but this has remained constant: the Father revealing His Son in those whom He chooses and the reality of Jesus in his disciples. Then Jesus charged his disciples that they tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ and from that time forward He began to show them He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things by the chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised on the third day. Why not spread the news? Why not go and shout it from the rooftops that Jesus is the Christ? Why not testify what had been revealed to Peter? Because, dear brothers and sisters, as with Peter, it must come from the inside out. The Father had revealed something inside of him, something precious, something of God. Jesus, knowing that the work of the cross had not yet been accomplished, and that the Spirit could not yet be poured forth, did not want information about him simply dissimulated. He didn’t want teachings about the conversation He had with Peter. For through the cross, God was going to do so much more than that. We must always remember that whatever God shows or reveals, it is still His. It has to stay in His hands, used His way and done His way. Is it possible that we know too much in American Christianity? We know how to win people to the Lord, or at least to our side. We know how to build churches, at least the numbers, the budgets and the buildings. We know how to teach Sunday school, youth classes, singles classes, college-student classes, marriage classes and successful Christian living classes. We know how to teach classes on how to teach classes. Still, in all of our knowing, there is more power in what is true, real and revealed in a heart than a head full of Christian knowledge.

When I was a young business man in Houston, not long after I got saved, I began to go to the red light district and preach. I didn’t know a whole lot and that was okay, because I wasn’t in pulpits I was on the streets. Nevertheless, I knew this: Christ had been revealed in me, Jesus had come into my home and broke every yoke. Where I once was lost I was now saved and where I once was blind I could now see, and I preached that through every fiber of my being. I preached like a dying man to a dying world. I didn’t get into discussions on doctrinal differences or eschatology and things that were beyond me at the time but I did preach Jesus and it did have an effect. I preached what was revealed in me; I preached by faith. As a young man I had the privilege of hearing some of the old time preachers and sometimes I think we are amiss today with our sophisticated preaching. Oh for the holy preacher who would preach simply yet powerfully about the blood of Jesus. Oh for the preachers who could talk of Jesus and His glory. Oh for preachers who could hold the hell-bound spell-bound, not by their eloquence but by opening the doors of their heart to what had been revealed. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God; Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against that. If those who are weary would get back to that reality, what refreshing would occur. The Bible says the just shall live by faith. You can have knowledge of Christ in your head, by faith we can always open our hearts to say God show me, God open my eyes, God reveal more and more of Jesus.

In Galatians, Paul speaking of his conversion says “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.”

It does not say He revealed His son to me but He revealed His son in me. I will pause here while you shout hallelujah. In me. This is the difference between revelation and religion, between knowledge and knowing. God reveals himself in us, before a man or woman is saved they have a body, a soul and a spirit, but that spirit is dead. No amount of trying to know or think can get you in the kingdom, it takes a measure of faith and trusting the One who died for you. When philosophers, psychologists and television personalities encourage people to look within themselves, they are only inviting despondency, depression and defeat. For that is all that is inside the lost man: remnants of what could have been, like walking down the corridors of a once beautiful house in ruins, with no electricity, water or warmth. However, once Christ is revealed inside, a whole new structure appears: the light comes on, the warmth is there, and the life is poised to flow out. Too many Christians have either abandoned or neglected the inward journey and strive in their own strength to know more, to do more and to try to please God. Yet what is needed is the acknowledgment of what has been revealed in them and then the laying down of their own lives. This should not be done in the pursuit of winning God’s favor, because Jesus has already done that for us, but in the separating of oneself, a getting out of the way, putting aside of anything good or bad: sanctification, so that life can flow. This is the secret to much of Paul’s fruitfulness. The inward journey that begins with the revelation of Christ and continues on that unfathomable journey.

What of our brother Peter, who so boldly confesses that Christ is the Son of the living God? As Jesus begins to explain that he is headed towards Jerusalem and the cross, Peter takes Him aside and rebukes Him, telling Him this is not necessary. Jesus rebukes Peter, as it is through the cross that life flows, but tells him He is praying that his faith doesn’t fail. Truly Peter’s spirit is willing but his flesh is weak. This is not just a physical weakness, for even though the revelation has awakened Peter’s heart, he is still thinking as a man, still thinking of things in the natural. Peter is headed for brokenness and a denying of the Lord, not a denying of the revelation that he received, but a denying and incomplete understanding of the Christ who was revealed unto him. In spite of this, Peter’s faith would not be destroyed, he had been given the revelation. It is because of that very revelation he went out and wept bitterly, he was trying to deny what he knew was absolutely true. Through Peter’s repentance and through resurrection life, Peter would be restored along with the others. One of the most precious scriptures, most precious personal statements from Jesus to an individual, is when He tells the women at the tomb to go and tell His disciples and Peter that He will go before them to Jerusalem. The “and Peter” is Jesus saying: I know you have fallen the hardest Peter and I know you have repented the strongest, but remember when I told you the gates of hell would not prevail; and yet there was still more for Peter. For soon the Holy Spirit would be poured out. Not only would the revelation that Peter and the other apostles possessed be abiding in them, but the Holy Spirit would be the wind behind their sails to carry that ship, the Lordship of Jesus, to the masses. It is needful today that Christ be revealed in people’s hearts and that they would then acknowledge the indwelling Lord.

The need today is not to ask that God will open the heavens and shower blessings and revival. The need today is that the life of Christ in believers would come out and the power and knowledge of Christ would come forth. I do not like to say statements such as this but I fear there may be many in our churches who have come in contact with the kingdom, maybe even sat for months or years under teachings that have touched their thoughts or emotions, yet has Christ been revealed in their hearts? Try as we might with our evangelism, our multi-screen media, our productions and our Christian PR, we can not do what only the Father can do: reveal himself to individuals. Our job is to pray and our job is to obey, to speak when he says speak, to be quiet when he says be quiet. He cannot do the praying or the obeying, that is our job, but He can do what we cannot: touch the sinners heart and reveal Himself to them. Just imagine what it would be like all across the land, if believers whom Christ has been revealed in began to rejoice over, obey and run with the Christ that is in them. Imagine if all those who’ve been sitting in churches, close to but not consumed by the love of Jesus, were awakened. Oh God make it so. Please in these last days, decide. Will there be revelation, will you walk in reality or will you continue in religion? Decide, and his grace like a river will being to flow from the inside out.